Jottings for October

October marks the last few weeks of what we call Ordinary Time, the longest season in the church calendar. Ordinary Time comes in two parts: the first being a short run of Sundays between Candlemas and Lent; the second beginning after Pentecost and lasting nearly half the calendar year until it finishes on All Saint’s Day at the beginning of November.

For clergy, it is tempting to liken it to the long school summer holiday, allowing a period of calm between the busy-ness of the two great festivals of Easter and Christmas. But life in the Church is never quiet!

In St Mary’s, October begins with our annual Harvest Festival on Sunday 5th October and ends with Bible Sunday on the 26th. Harvest Festival, at which our thanksgiving collections go to Christian Aid, provides us with the opportunity to remind ourselves of God’s goodness in celebration of the wonderful created world in which we live. On Bible Sunday we recall the great and timeless story of salvation as told in Scripture.

In between these two, there is a special family and parish Communion service “Creation, Compassion and Music” which celebrates the wonder of music in drawing us to God, in connecting us with nature, and making us more compassionate towards others. On the Fourth Sunday of every month we have revived out traditional Evensong service. If you have never attended Evensong before do come along at 5pm on 26th October for what is a very beautiful and uniquely English service of meditative liturgy and restful music.

In addition, on 10th October at 7.30pm we will enjoy music from voice and organ (which is currently being restored) when the Nota Bene Choir  will sing, and Kim Lane will give an organ recital.

October is a chance to catch a breath before the countdown to Advent begins and we can start to look forward to what is, for many, the most beautiful and mystical part of the church year.
                                                                                                Rev Chris Shore
                                                                                                                                                                                   

Reflection for the month - October

 Follow me, with these words Jesus called his first disciples together. The words echo down the centuries to us – his followers today.  We are more fortunate in some ways than those simple Galilean fishermen. They did not know the way where they were going, they did not fully know Jesus, nor His father whom they regularly asked to see, and they certainly did not know the kind of life they were to lead. We do know the way – Jesus – the way the truth and the life, and we know the Father too because Jesus and the Father are one, and who has seen Jesus has seen the Father – God Almighty.

Jesus is the way, when we follow Him, uniting our lives with His we are united with God and all the blessings and benefits of being children of God are ours.

God is love, St Paul in the wonderful chapter 13 of Corinthians spells out what love is, patient, kind, not boastful, not self-seeking, always trustful, always hopeful, always persevering, and never failing. This is the love which Jesus showed throughout his life, and asked his apostles, and now asks us, to love Him as he had loved them and now loves us – fully and unconditionally.

Jesus is the Truth.  What we may believe as truth is so often the product of our fanciful imaginings, seeing things as we would like them to be rather than as in reality they are. In Jesus we can recognise the truth of Gods’ word, the truth that sets us free, the perfect standard of what is right, freeing us from self-deception and freedom to follow Him.
Jesus is the life, the whole life, involved in every aspect of our lives. We cannot separate our spiritual lives from our day-to-day existence. We cannot be one day each week Christians. Christ must be with us in all that we do all the time. We pray hard that this will always be so.

God is love. His love is freely given, and unconditional. We with His grace have only to respond to Him through our love for Him and for others. That is the way to eternal life. This is our faith and this is our hope. Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly and love extravagantly. And the greatest of these is love.                        David Peacock