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Dear friends,

It was recently a great privilege for me to baptise our grandson, baby Elijah, our son’s son.  To see one’s child become a parent is to witness both the creation of new life, and the re-creating effects of new parenthood.  We are created and re-created, fashioned and refashioned through life.

As the Cathedral enters the season of Creationtide the focus turns to the world as God’s creation.  This is the period in the annual church calendar, from 1 September to 4 October, dedicated to God as Creator and Sustainer of all life.  Humanity plays a vital role, entrusted with the care of creation, and invited into a process of re-creation to become more like Christ.  The themes of Creationtide are both spiritual and practical.  What world are we creating and what kind of people are we becoming?

As the Coronavirus pandemic recedes we are not emerging into the secure and familiar place we might have hoped for.  The world seems more uncertain and dangerous, with war and climate emergency combining to threaten global harvests and escalating food and fuel prices affecting every household.  Some of us will be very anxious about the coming winter months. Many of us are feeling and becoming more vulnerable.

In addition we carry burdens of love.  I was struck at Elijah’s baptism how many people, including younger family and guests, took up the offer to light a candle for someone that they were thinking about, or concerned for.  The stand became full of lighted candles.  So many of us carry burdens in the form of anxiety, loss and grief and it was good to be able to acknowledge this and to offer it to God.

It’s been said that as we journey though life’s joys and challenges we can become bitter, or we can become better.  In the challenges facing us this autumn and winter it will be more important than ever to love our families, friends and neighbours and support one another.  To seek to be kind in our dealings with one another and to give support – practical and financial if we can – to those who are going without.

We will need to continue to learn resilience and the ability to remain hopeful in the face of adversity.  I find that one way to do this is to focus on what I’m learning each day and to enjoy simple pleasures and acts of kindness and thoughtfulness, and of course counting my blessings, the greatest of which is new life.

I do hope that you will have a good Creationtide, culminating in Harvest Festival at the beginning of October.  We will be receiving gifts for the Food Bank, as usual with a second opportunity to give to this good cause, in the New Year.

I’ll close with a lovely prayer from The Church of South India,

Great and merciful God,

Your life is the source of the whole world’s life;

Your mercy is our only hope;

Your eyes watch over all your creatures;

You know the secrets of our hearts.

By your life-giving Spirit, draw us into your presence,

with lives re-created by your love,

through him who has led us to your heart of love,

even Jesus Christ, our Lord.  Amen.

Please continue to take care of yourself, and others.