Abiding Astonishment

Dear friends,

We know instinctively that collaboration is preferable to conflict, and that mutually respectful partnerships can often lead to innovation. One of the many reasons that we work together as a team of churches here in Langtree is that we can share lessons learned, and that we can also offer one another support and mutual care. I have recently had a rather “off the wall” confirmation of these ideas from the world of the biological sciences. I’d always thought that a lichen was a kind of plant, albeit a very simple one that took a variety of forms; some preferring to find a home on the branches of trees, others being more comfortable on the sunbaked and wind scoured surface of a mountain crag. Apparently you can find crustose (crusty) ones, foliose (leafy) ones, squamulose (scaly) ones, leprose (dusty) ones, and fruticose (branched) ones. These latter are particularly beautiful. There are many varieties of lichen in the churchyard, as you might expect, not just on the surrounding trees, but also adorning the gravestones. These latter, the rock dwellers, have found a way to mine the minerals from the rock itself (we call this “weathering”, and it is both physical, and chemical) and their life cycle greatly assists in the process of soil formation.

However I have now learned that a lichen is not a plant, but a partnership. It is a unique combination of fungus, and algae, working together to “help each other out”, so that life is possible in a situation where neither could survive alone. The cells of the algae are able to photosynthesize sunlight, providing energy and sugars for growth. The fungus provides the physical structure protecting the whole, and also the mineral nutrients that both require to live. The mechanism of their collaboration is impossible to completely untangle, so enmeshed are the partners in each other’s world. The word “symbiosis” was coined out of this discovery. The humble lichen also serves to remind us that Darwin’s theory of speciation, where the tree of life branches and branches, and newness only comes through division, is not the whole story of Creation. Sometimes a creative conjoining between “non-equals” brings with it a whole new way of being.

Worship Services for Sunday 1st September

9.30am Family Service at St John’s, Stoke Row with Mr Peter Ferguson

11am Morning Prayer at St Peter and Paul, Checkendon with Canon Kevin Davies. Bring your own picnic lunch to enjoy after the service.

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

St Peter’s Picnic

Next Sunday, as the forecast is good, there is an opportunity to stay on after the 11am service if you wish, for a picnic lunch with one another. (It is a “bring your own” to keep things simple.)  Enjoy the opportunity for some relaxed conversation in church and churchyard. Tea and coffee will be available and everyone is welcome. (You’ll also be welcome to try a bit of “lichen spotting”!)

Please remember in your prayers Katherine Parsons and Oliver Carter, who are being married at Checkendon on Saturday. May they know God’s blessing, and his joy.  Please also pray for teachers and pupils at both Stoke Row and Checkendon Primary schools, who return for the new academic year which begins next Monday. May the Lord be very close to all those who are starting school for the very first time.

Peace be with you all

Canon Kevin Davies