CHRISTMAS message from Rev Nigel Done, of the Minster, Ilminster, can be found here.

I DON’T know if among the preparations for Christmas you had time to prepare for the end of the world this week?

The 5,000-year-old Mayan Long calendar inconveniently flips over to zero at midnight on December 21, so if you’re reading this it’s because the News is still hot off the press and the date hasn’t passed or this particular apocalypse passed us by and we live to see another Christmas.

Three days after the ancient Mexican calendar runs out an awful lot of other calendars come to the end; our Advent calendars cease to offer a fresh door with a chocolate or cheery image. The countdown is finished and the wait over. Christmas is upon us and the feasting, present sharing and fun can begin.

My prayer this Christmas is that time will at least stand still, that you might steal a moment to step outside and marvel in the cold night, sit in a church and let the carols wash over you, turn the telly off and watch the children, and allow your spirit to sing ‘O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel’.