Pastoral Letter
Welcome to Jonathan Dowman, our new Curate, who writes this month Pastoral Letter...
Dear Friends,
If those of you who love sunshine and heat would forgive and indulge me for a while, may I just explain why I think everyone's favourite time of the year should be autumn - the season which in my biased opinion ranks above all others! I'm certain that some of you will relate to my love of autumn, but if you don't, I won't hold it against you!
For me, autumn is all about a time of promise and hope, but before I get letters explaining that I must surely be thinking of spring, I assure that I am not. Let me explain..
The weather in autumn is fantastic with its promise of the first dense fog, when the world becomes eerily quiet, so that even the sound of your own voice doesn't carry and the first frost, where by the lower the temperature the more excited I get! The colours of autumn, conker fights and kicking through the leaves is magic and I love the promise of fireworks, bonfires, apple pies and the first roast potatoes! As a child (please excuse this petrol-head excursion!) I loved the promise of the Motor- Show in Birmingham or London, travelling there with my dad by train to see the latest Lotus, Porsche or Jaguar and of coming back with bagfuls of car brochures and car related tat! I still do love the promise of my Birthday and of the Christmas to come, but most of all, above everything else is the promise and hope that this coming winter may bring SNOW!
Now I know that looking forward to the possibility of snow, to many sounds rather ridiculous and that looking forward to it in the autumn only adds to my foolishness, but it is in the autumn that you see the change in the weather and (for me anyway) the promise and hope of a following winter with snow excites my inner child every year! I'm sure there must be people out there who feel the same..
Yet as I was thinking about this letter, I realised that for many autumn is not about promise or hope. The garden and trees are dying, the nights are getting longer and soon it will get cooler as well. For some people a season such as this is nothing to celebrate or find promise in.
In the same way, we too experience seasons in our lives and while some may be experiencing a season of promise or hope, something we all desire, I know that others are perhaps feeling that they are experiencing a season of decay, of chill, of bad weather or of long nights, through circumstance, illness, family life, work, stress, money, debt, failure, self esteem, loss or death, to name a few. Indeed we all can face difficult seasons and times which hold little promise or hope.
This autumn, if you are in that place of little to hope for or lacking any kind of promise, I would like to offer you the greatest promise of all - that of the love, care and guidance of God, who promises us good gifts and plans; who promises to make our paths straight, our burdens light. This autumn, if you need to know these promises for yourself, why don't you speak to David Lewis or I and we would be happy to introduce you to the one who keeps his promises forever. This is perhaps the greatest promise of all; because like the promises of autumn, our promises can remain unfulfilled. After all: when was the last time we had a good dumping of snow?!
God bless