Indian Summer

Dear friends,

As I write the morning sun is slanting across the  front garden as it creeps above the village hall roof. The light shines through the greenery of  the lilac tree, where a great tit flits about, searching for aphids and other bugs on the leaves and branches, his colouring blending him in with the foliage. The low angle of the light tinges everything green and gold. It is a beautiful day. The great rowan tree by the hedge is glorious, relishing the new morning. The sky above is blue, fading to bright whiteness towards the east. The window is framed with the Russian vine, the green growth still astonishingly lush despite a summer without any water against the study wall. His colour will soon change to red and bronze, but this is only a stay of execution, as he has outcompeted the asters that are his neighbours in the location, taking all the water that normally might have been shared. The poor asters are thin, their blue already washed out, their stems bent under the effort that life requires. The merciless vine has no morality – it just has deeper roots. Towards the fence, the young cotinus shrub in the corner is waiting for its cue to turn yellow, and add a splash of majesty to lift ones eyes, and hopefully one’s spirits, as the autumn beds in. One or two cans of water in the drought were all it needed, but its neighbour along the fence, a cultivated blackberry, several years old now, has died of thirst – or was that neglect? We continue to take our water for granted, assuming that when we turn on the tap, something potable will come out of it. The ground is dry, bone dry, and several months of rain are needed now in order to restore the balance, the equilibrium of the soil/plant ecosystems, the river levels that nourish our farms, and the aquifers deep underground, which, like our souls, we assume are someone else’s responsibility.

Worship Services for Sunday 27th September

9.30am Holy Communion at St John’s Stoke Row with Revd Kevin Davies

11am Holy Communion at St Peter and Paul, Checkendon with Revd Kevin Davies

Midweek zoom service: Wednesday Evensong at 5.00pm  410 935 129

Sunday 4th October

9.30am & 11am Harvest Festival Services at St John’s Stoke Row and at St Peter and St Paul, Checkendon.

Steve and Frances Woolaway  will be bringing their produce stall to Checkendon’s service from Manor Farm, Peppard. Our collection will be shared between Tear Fund, the international relief and development charity, and the Ways and Means Trust, the  local mental health charity.

Please pray for

All parents trying to bring up children in an uncertain world. All children and young people who have recently started, or moved school. Perhaps ask God for his blessing on your closest school, and any children in your family, or who are known to you.

Thank God today for the opportunities that he gives you to show kindness and generosity. Such acts are the water that our souls require, wherein we produce the harvest that God seeks, that of lives which are filled with the fruits of love, and faithfulness.

Your Rector, Canon Kevin