An Advent Calendar with a difference - in the form of a book. Instead of cardboard cut-outs the 'windows' we open are word-pictures and stories from the Land called Holy. Readers can respond with prayer.

'Walk humbly with God - ' Advent is a time of wonder and waiting - but that's not a passive thing. We need to walk into Advent with our eyes open. We walk through a world where wars are being waged and babies are being born. We are humbled by our inability to do much about what is wrong. But we do our best: to be kind, caring, to understand the meaning of mercy. We do our best to be even-handed, to act justly. Words from the prophet Micah inspired this book. But it also reflects the words of a later prophet, George Fox: 'Walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in everyone.' Join us on a cheerful, thoughtful, justice-seeking journey towards Bethlehem, a journey day by day through Advent. Jan Sutch Pickard is a poet, preacher and storyteller living on Mull. She is former Warden of Iona Abbey, Vice President of the Methodist Conference, and Ecumenical Accompanier. Her books and many resources include Out of Iona: Words from a Crossroads of the World and Between High and Low Water: Sojourner Songs (Wild Goose). She is also a frequent contributor to IBRA's Fresh from the Word daily reading series.

Poems of strong and well-crafted connections – between communities in the West of Scotland and the West Bank Palestinian territories; between prayer and politics; between a lyrical delight in the natural world – and down-to-earth living, observed with warmth and humour. Jan Sutch Pickard is a former Warden of Iona Abbey, a storyteller, liturgist and Methodist lay preacher. She has twice served as a peace monitor with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel.

Sing But Keep On Walking moves between the islands of Mull and Iona and the hills of the West Bank and Jerusalem: places ‘on the edge’. And, like in Palestine two thousand years ago, that’s where God comes to us, in human form, as living Word, as light out of darkness.Some images recur – like flocks of migrating birds or flowing water, like stories of people who work with their hands: sculptors, a carpenter, a baker. Real people, whose lives are celebrated.‘I’m writing amid political chaos and climate crisis,’ says Jan, ‘with no easy answers … But we can speak truth to power, walk side by side, sing justice. We can live an alternative.’O God, you challenge us to pilgrimage,and you walk with us on those journeys we did not choose.Keep us singing: with joy, with courage, with hope.AmenJan Sutch Pickard is a storyteller and poet living on the Isle of Mull. She is a former Warden of Iona Abbey, and volunteered with the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme, serving on different occasions in two West Bank villages.

An Advent Calendar with a difference - in the form of a book. Instead of cardboard cut-outs the 'windows' we open are word-pictures and stories from the Land called Holy. Readers can respond with prayer.

'Walk humbly with God - ' Advent is a time of wonder and waiting - but that's not a passive thing. We need to walk into Advent with our eyes open. We walk through a world where wars are being waged and babies are being born. We are humbled by our inability to do much about what is wrong. But we do our best: to be kind, caring, to understand the meaning of mercy. We do our best to be even-handed, to act justly. Words from the prophet Micah inspired this book. But it also reflects the words of a later prophet, George Fox: 'Walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in everyone.' Join us on a cheerful, thoughtful, justice-seeking journey towards Bethlehem, a journey day by day through Advent. Jan Sutch Pickard is a poet, preacher and storyteller living on Mull. She is former Warden of Iona Abbey, Vice President of the Methodist Conference, and Ecumenical Accompanier. Her books and many resources include Out of Iona: Words from a Crossroads of the World and Between High and Low Water: Sojourner Songs (Wild Goose). She is also a frequent contributor to IBRA's Fresh from the Word daily reading series.

Poems of strong and well-crafted connections – between communities in the West of Scotland and the West Bank Palestinian territories; between prayer and politics; between a lyrical delight in the natural world – and down-to-earth living, observed with warmth and humour. Jan Sutch Pickard is a former Warden of Iona Abbey, a storyteller, liturgist and Methodist lay preacher. She has twice served as a peace monitor with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel.

Sing But Keep On Walking moves between the islands of Mull and Iona and the hills of the West Bank and Jerusalem: places ‘on the edge’. And, like in Palestine two thousand years ago, that’s where God comes to us, in human form, as living Word, as light out of darkness.Some images recur – like flocks of migrating birds or flowing water, like stories of people who work with their hands: sculptors, a carpenter, a baker. Real people, whose lives are celebrated.‘I’m writing amid political chaos and climate crisis,’ says Jan, ‘with no easy answers … But we can speak truth to power, walk side by side, sing justice. We can live an alternative.’O God, you challenge us to pilgrimage,and you walk with us on those journeys we did not choose.Keep us singing: with joy, with courage, with hope.AmenJan Sutch Pickard is a storyteller and poet living on the Isle of Mull. She is a former Warden of Iona Abbey, and volunteered with the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme, serving on different occasions in two West Bank villages.