THERE have been some good things in 2011 and some sad things, even bad things.

Certainly that's been true on the public stage of the world. Maybe in your own life too.

But now comes the New Year and, for all the problems that probably lie ahead, our instinct is to look to 2012 with hope.

It's a deep human instinct – to hope. Sometimes the hope is for good times in the far distance, even, as Christians might see it, good times in the kingdom of heaven one day, even if the here and now is fairly challenging.

But, of course, the kingdom of heaven, as the Bible describes it, doesn't wait for some distant day.

It breaks out in little pockets in our midst, whenever there is love or generosity or reconciliation or new life.

It's because we can be confident that there will be little pockets of the kingdom of heaven in our lives in 2012 that we can have hope and say, with real feeling, "Happy New Year!"

So I say it to you today, with hope in my heart, "Happy New Year!"

The Bishop of Gloucester, the Rt Rev Michael Perham