In my last-minute hunt round the shops for Christmas presents, I was amused to find a book entitled Is It Just Me Or Is Everything Great?

Had I been suicidal I might not have found it such a giggle. But optimism is infectious and I've always been susceptible. The author encourages us to don our rose-tinted spectacles and see the pluses of everything from accountants to zits, and it's rather endearing - if a bit loony.

But as we move into 2008, clearly everything is not great. There's the global-warming time bomb, bird flu, identity fraud, terrorism, escalating personal debt - and that's just this country, before we move onto to places like Zimbabwe or North Korea where the daily struggle is beyond the experience of most of us.

Despite all this, I want to convince you, dear reader, that 2008 is a special year - a year of hope. More than 70 churches across the Bradford district have signed up to be part of Hope Bradford, the local arm of a national campaign called Hope 2008.

The aim of this is to see Christians of different denominations working together to help people in their local community. They have been praying for the people of Bradford in a new way all through 2007 and want and expect to see changes for the better in the city and outlying areas in the next 12 months.

Do I believe this can happen? Actually, yes.

I'm not just talking about regeneration of the city centre, which does seem so pitifully slow; I'm talking about a regeneration of people on the inside - something that builds on the positive foundations, which, as an "offcomed 'un", are probably more obvious to me.

People can knock Bradford all they like; but it has a big heart. Just ask some of the major national charities and they will tell you of our city's deep pockets. Why? Because people who have had a struggle know what it is like to need a leg-up in life. Bradford's problems over the years have earned its people a more tender heart for each other than its flashy neighbouring cities, and that gives me a lot of hope.

Put it this way: imagine you are at a junction and another driver allows your car out into the traffic. A minute later, you spot someone else in your previous position, hoping to join the rush-hour flow. Would you let them in front of you? Of course you would.

One of Hope Bradford's big campaigns is for the churches to deliver 50,000 hours of kindness to people outside of the church. The multiplication of this kindness could be unstoppable; one neighbour cuts another's hedge or does their shopping when they are looking a bit up against it and you never know where it could end.

Blind optimism is not going to solve the world's worries - but no gesture of kindness, however small, goes unnoticed.

  • Find out more about Hope Bradford at www.hopebradford.org.uk