Autumn has officially arrived (on 22 Sept apparently!) and it has certainly felt cooler and darker this week, but also we’ve enjoyed some beautiful sunny days when the changing colours of the trees have been seen in all their auburn glory! But nothing says autumn to me more than all the horse chestnuts dropping and crunching underfoot. We have a huge one at the end of our road and we’ve gathered a great collection on our walk to church.
But did you know – shock, horror! – that this year’s World Conker Championships (held in the Shuckburgh Arms pub in Northamptonshire) have been put in serious jeopardy by the summer heat waves, which have sadly led to small conkers, not the big round shiny ones we usually expect. The organiser Charles Whalley said, “It’s been a worrying time, a really worrying time”. Have you noticed this year’s sub-optimal conkers?!
I am only half joking of course, because the changing climate is truly a huge concern. In our country it has presented reasonably undramatically (so far) but as we see wildfires and floods sweep across the world it is our Christian duty to take this issue seriously, as stewards of God’s creation and in response to Jesus’s command to love our neighbour. For it is our brothers and sisters in the poorest places who are suffering the most, the subsistence farmers who watch helplessly as an entire season of crops is washed away, leaving them without anything to eat or trade.
We are now well into the season of Creationtide and it has been amazing to see our community engaging so wholeheartedly with it – from the brilliant tips sent by the Eco-Hub, to the fundraising for the solar panels at the chapel, to the children’s prayers hanging in the side chapel at St Mary’s. And don’t forget the Pet Service at St Mary’s this Sunday, an opportunity to thank God for all his creatures and demonstrate to our local community that God is interested in everything in creation – from autumn leaves, to field mice, to pet turtles and of course to normal people, made in his image, and that Jesus died to redeem every single bit of it.
With love and prayers
Revd Jemima