Advent Calendar

The stereotype of an Anglican priest is someone who visits parishioners in the morning and spends the afternoon writing metaphysical poetry. Probably only true historically of George Herbert and to a lesser degree (as he didn't visit parishioners so much) John Donne, it is also true of the present Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. The following poem, titled Advent Calendar is from The Poems of Rowan Williams,

He will come like last fall's leaf fall.
One night when the November wind
has flayed the trees to the bone, and earth
wakes choking on the mould,
the soft shroud's folding.

He will come like frost.
One morning when the shrinking earth
opens on mist, to find itself
arrested in the net
of alien, sword-set beauty.

He will come like dark.
One evening when the bursting red
December sun draws up the sheet
and penny-masks its eye to yield
the star-snowed fields of sky.

He will come, will come,
will come like crying in the night,
like blood, like breaking,
as the earth writhes to toss him free.
He will come like child.

The archbishop's Christmas letter is found here online.

Visit a neighboring blog
You will also want to read the Rev. Stephen Rice's Yes, Virginia column for his local newspaper concerning the current "war" on Christmas. It is well worth a read.