REV CHRIS RICHARDSON: Plenty of opportunities to change your life

Yet our new year resolutions have often been broken by the end of January.

It’s a shame, but at least it shows that we want to become better people.

If you’ve already broken yours, you don’t need to wait until January 2018 to think about transforming your life.

There are plenty of opportunities in Gosport to get fit, join a club, or make new friends.

And some of those activities can be done at church.

For instance, you might think that your marriage relationship needs an MOT.

The relationship you have with your spouse or partner might have gone off the boil a bit.

Perhaps you both know that you have more arguments these days.

If so, we’re running a marriage enrichment course at St Mary’s Church.

This is a chance to invest in your relationship.

Many people have found it helpful, whether they have been married for two years or more than 20.

It happens for seven Wednesday evenings, starting on February 1.

You don’t have to embarrass yourself by talking about your relationship with the whole group – you will talk only to your spouse or partner.

And you can reserve places for the first evening as a taster – you don’t have to come back if you don’t like it.

Or perhaps the festive season has made you wonder about the purpose of your life.

Why are we here? Is there more to life than the daily 9am to 5pm grind?

You might be interested in our Christianity explored course, which looks at some of the hard questions about faith.

That starts on Thursday, February 2, and involves a group meeting for a chat about some of the difficult issues to do with God, Jesus, the Bible, and prayer.

Of course, there is always a place for you at church even if you’re not interested in new year resolutions.

We’re hosting a special service for churches of all denominations on January 22.

It’s from 6.30pm and we’ll have lots of cake available – for those who don’t care about their waistlines!

To find out more about any of the events, call the parish office on (023) 9258 0551 or e-mail [email protected].

St Mary’s Church, Green Road, Alverstoke, Gosport.

Go to stmarysalverstoke.org.uk.

Rev Chris is curate of Alverstoke