Column: Pilgrim's Progress: A new year is at hand

What will happen in Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, Sudan? Closer to home, there may be disasters, like the canal collapsing in Shropshire. And in our own lives, some will face losing a job, a relationship breakdown, a diagnosis.

If only we knew, we often say, an understandable sign of our frustration that so much is unknown, can’t be controlled or planned for.

Perhaps it is because there have been so many anniversaries of the events of 1944 and 1945 in the past couple of years, but I have found myself increasingly drawn to the words of the late King, George VI, whose wartime speeches were simple, decent, humane, and profound.

In the first Christmas of the Second World War, he said, A new year is at hand. We cannot tell what it will bring. Then, making famous the words of a little-known poet, he went on:

‘I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year, “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.” And he replied, “Go out into the darkness, and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light, and safer than a known way.” ’May that Almighty Hand guide and uphold us all.’

These words give me great encouragement at the start of a new year, when (as always) we cannot tell what it will bring, and I hope they encourage and inspire you, too. Happy new year.

Philip Hobday

Wakefield Cathedral