Church letter

August 2024

Click for the church letter from July 2024

Opportunities in a bizarre summer

Well, this is a pretty strange old summer: so much summer sport, and so little summer weather! If you don’t particularly like sport, it will be a very long time for you: four weeks of the men’s Euros, two weeks of Wimbledon and three weeks of the summer Olympics. Not to mention the British Grand Prix, the women’s Euros 2025 qualifiers, the cricket test matches, the rugby tests ... the list goes on and on. Exciting if you love sport; not quite so if you don’t.

On top of that we’ve got our variable and, for the most part, unseasonal weather. If you enjoy your gardening, the weather is scuppering a lot of things you can do out there. If your idea of enjoying the garden is a glass of wine in the evening sitting in your garden or firing up the barbecue, the weather is scuppering these too, apart from the occasional and very rare day. And, of course, most of the normal routine of things within the village or in your life changes during August; it can all feel very strange.

So, if you are fed up with all the sport, and you are fed up with not being able to enjoy your gardening pleasure, and you feel disconcerted by the lack of normal routine, what can you do this glorious August? You might be fortunate to be able to get away for a holiday. If you are, I hope the time and the travel are stress-free; and that you come back feeling relaxed, rather than with enough material to write a book of short stories on “things that went wrong on my holiday”!

Whether you can get away on holiday or not, I hope you can find time, in the changed routine that August can bring, just to think and reflect upon the important things in life. Perhaps your relationships with other people; perhaps your relationship with the beautiful nature that is around us. Take time this month to notice all that is around us. Go for a walk, if you are able; but make it a slow walk, where you are engaging all your senses; and appreciate all of God’s creation around us. Or take time just to sit in your garden - albeit wrapped up - and notice the wildlife that visits when you take the time to sit and just be present in that moment. Be grateful for that stress-free time and for nature.

Maybe take the time to reflect upon your personal impact on the beauty of nature. If you can’t get out into a garden, then take the time to think about the relationships that are important to you, be that family or friends. We are made to be in relationships with one another. Make a ‘summer resolution’ to work on building up a relationship you know isn’t quite right. Take the opportunity and embrace the reflection time that this strange summer might offer you.

Revd David Commander, Rector and Area Dean