Dear friends,
It is that time of year again when we begin to see a new season creep in, with some of the trees beginning to look more autumnal and the nights are beginning to draw in, with lights being put on earlier of an evening and there is a real nip in the air…. Although it wouldn’t surprise me after writing this piece to you that we suddenly head straight into a heatwave haha!!
The children today have returned to school, and it is so lovely to hear them playing again on the school field after the long summer break.
In the church season we are still very much in the season known as ordinary time, although things have been far from ordinary, with my colleague Revd Charles Sherlock now having retired and I am soon to be made Priest in Charge of the Mundford, Hilborough and Oxborough Groups of Parishes, with the hope of a new colleague to come and minister among us in the, I hope, not too distant future…. And very soon too we will be celebrating the Harvest season giving great thanks to God for all the goodness He gives as we let go of the old and embrace the new…. This is where for now this reflection leaves us…. As we let go of all that has gone before and look to a new season…. With the words of Annie Heppenstall in her prayerful poem…..’Letting Go’
The birch leaves are falling, Lord,
yellow diamonds on the green grass,
released in the autumn wind.
But I, Lord,
I still clutch tight the leaves of my old life,
useless, withered and dry.Teach me to let go of the old –
old hurts and animosities, old troubles and grief.
Teach me to release them into the wind of your Spirit
to be whisked away,
that like the tree I may rest a while
at peace within,
then grow again in the spring.
May we all have courage to let go of all that is no longer helpful to us in the past and move on in courage into a new season of our lives, as we embrace a new yearly season.
With every love and blessing,
Your parish priest, Zoe
Revd. Zoe Ferguson (Priest in Charge Mundford Group Benefice & Assistant Priest to Hilborough & Oxborough groups) Day off Monday.
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