Tag: God

Festival of Creation

*Haybales in Norfolk. Photo by Julia Sheffield*

EQUINOX, AUTUMN & HARVEST
a Festival of Creation

Today, September 22^nd, the Earth’s axis and its orbit line up so that both halves of the planet get an equal amount of sunshine. From today, in the Northern Hemisphere, the nights will be longer than the days. This is the opposite case in the Southern Hemisphere
The seasons change. We in the Northern Hemisphere enter officially into the season of Autumn whilst in the South, Spring begins. Both seasons are festivals of Creation.God paints his Earth with colour and beauty ~ Gold and Red in the North and Radiant Green in the South.

The season of Autumn is often associated with the gathering in of the Harvest, when the fruits of the earth are garnished and the fields are mown. The poet Keats called this the season of mellow fruitfulness. He was writing at a different time when the festivals of the Countryside marked the stages of the year, each with its own characteristics of Nature. Today, it is less marked and food production is taken for granted. It is less about the movement of Creation and more about the packing of supermarket shelves! Quite often, in these days of globalization it is hard to take on board the seasons. Blueberries look about the same and are available for much of the year but their point of origin can be from almost anywhere in the world ~ well. Maybe not the Arctic or its southern equivalent!

Equinox, Autumn, Harvest are ‘Earth Festivals’ through which we can be led to celebrate the gift of Creation and the bountiful goodness of God. At a time when all across the globe humanity is hell-bent on self-destruction and with it ,the destruction of the earth, it is good to remind ourselves that God’s provision for our life on earth is all Gift.

Maybe that’s why I like the poem by John Keble, from his anthology of payer poems, The Christian Year, now sung as a hymn, which centres our praying on God, His Creation, His gifts of nature, and His year-long provision for our needs.
Lord, in Thy Name Thy servants plead, is not sung very often these days but it remains my absolutely favourite hymn for this season.

Lord, in Thy Name Thy servants plead,
And Thou hast sworn to hear;
Thine is the harvest, Thine the seed,
The fresh and fading year.

Our hope, when autumn winds blew wild,
We trusted, Lord, with Thee:
And still, now spring has on us smiled
We wait on Thy decree.

The former and the latter rain,
The summer sun and air,
The green ear and the golden grain,
All Thine, are ours by prayer.

Thine too by right and ours by grace,
The wondrous growth unseen,
The hopes that soothe, the fears that brace,
The love that shines serene.

So grant the precious things brought forth
By sun and moon below,
That Thee in Thy new heav’n and earth
We never may forgo.

John Keble 1792-1866

[Mr G. 22nd September 2025]

St. Aidan, meeting God in others.

Lindisfarne : The Cross on Cuddy’s Isle .

Piers Northam ponders on the mission of St. Aidan

St Aidan of Lindisfarne, whom the church remembers today, modelled humility. He was active in Northumbria in the 7th Century. Aidan was of Irish descent and was a monk at the monastery on Iona. Oswald, who became king of Northumbria in 634, wanted to bring Christianity to his people and the Venerable Bede tells us that he contacted the monastic community on Iona and they sent a bishop called Corman to bring the good news to Oswald’s people. But Corman didn’t go down well – he was haughty and harsh, and thought the Northumbrians were too stubborn and stupid to be converted. On his return to Iona, Aidan criticized the way that he had gone about things: “Shouldn’t you have been a little gentler and more patient brother?” Aidan is reported to have asked and, before he knew it, he was being sent off to have a go himself.

So what was it that differed in Aidan’s approach? Well, first, he was aware that if he was going to bring a lasting Christian faith to this part of the country he was going to have to have a long-term strategy. So his first move was to set up his little monastery on the island of Lindisfarne and in it a school that took in local Northumbrian boys. In doing so, he was valuing the people of Northumbria rather than assuming that they were stupid and stubborn. He was noticing, valuing and nurturing their potential, because they were to be the very foundation of this local church.

His next move was to begin to learn the language of the local people so that he could go out into the lanes and farms talking to people and telling them the Gospel stories in a language they could understand. You have to remember that Aidan would have spoken Old Irish and the Northumbrians Old English – two languages that had no linguistic ties – so this was no mean feat. Thankfully, King Oswald came to his rescue being bilingual. If you think about it, that’s the exact opposite of a colonial approach, where you take your own culture and impose it on another society and culture – again, Aidan saw the value in what was there and approached the task with humility.

In those times, people were in the habit of carrying knives – and not just to cut their meat up – allegiances were fiercely local; foreigners and outsiders generally mistrusted and Aidan, of course, was one such outsider. Yet Aidan and his followers refused to tuck a knife in their belt – a risky strategy, but a courageous one, for it showed that they were essentially defenceless and meant that they were reliant on people to help them – trusting them to do so. And, of course, we see the parallels between that and the gospel account of Jesus sending the disciples out in pairs. Whereas Corman, Aidan’s predecessor had ridden around the farms and villages of the area on horseback, gathering people together, preaching to them and then aiming at mass conversions, Aidan’s methods were far more humble: he literally walked thousands of miles, tramping the lanes and pathways, and getting into conversation with those he met. His was a patient approach: aiming to kindle a curiosity in his listeners so that in time they were drawn into the way of Christ and would ask to be baptised. His methods did not hinge on mass conversions which had little to back them up, but rather on personal, long-lasting relationships that led to a real desire to learn more about Christ. He was not talking down to people from the back of a horse, rather, he was encountering them face-to-face – eye-to-eye – on a level: treating them as equals – all valued, beloved and precious to God.

Needless to say, Aidan’s approach found far greater success than Corman’s and Christianity took hold and became deeply rooted in the North East of England. His humility and the way that he approached and valued people was effective in spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ.

[Extract from a sermon by Piers Northam, preached on St. Aidan’s Day, Sunday 31st August 2025]

On Friendship

*Christ our Li*berator. artist: *John Dugdale*

For Anne

My friend Anne died recently and as I prepare myself for her funeral I begin to think about the nature of our Friendship.

We were friends for almost 50 years. There are people who have been your friend for most of your life. These are the precious few who have shaped your life from within. Some seem to have been sent into your life to enliven, brighten and accept you without judgement. Sometimes, of course, they lovingly correct you! These are the friends with whom you share the deep gift of love in a harmony which somehow fulfils what it means to be truly human. There is a one-ness in which delight flourishes and also where honesty and truth play a part which is invaluable and open and kindly meant.
This feels to me to be a gift of God who is, of course the ‘friend’ who reflects all friendship.
It’s as if God shares His DNA in a very special way.
Amongst such friends there is a deepness of spirit through which they share in your very being and indeed, it is their love and friendship which makes that ‘being’ wonderfully unique.
They are not a ‘part’ of your life. They are an ingredient which makes your life complete and fulfilled. They are, in fact, God’s pure gift to you through whom He reveals you as you truly are.

In such a friendship the divine and human spark together and brings to birth the Godly specialness which makes you and your friend truly icons of the Incarnation. They share in that pilgrimage which leads you both closer to the nature of God, who out of sheer love was born in human form and likeness. Jesus, born in our midst, spoke profoundly of the nature of friendship as a sign of God’s care, love, and acceptance and of His desire that our lives become imitations of His. True friendship is when people can look into each other’s eyes and immediately see a reflection of God mirrored in the soul.

My dear friend, Anne, was and is such a person. I thank God for her love for me and for others who have been changed, loved and accepted by her, in God’s holy Name.

Mr. G.
30th August 2025

Jesus said, “I have called you friends” (John 15:15)

Five Years on…

5 Years On…. A note from Pagli, the cat…

“Mr G’s ponderings are the thoughts, day-dreams, perceptions and opinions of my owner, Geoffrey. (Though as all cat-lovers know, ownership of a cat is a disputable claim…) Mr G was, until retirement, involved in Christian ministry in the Anglican church which may colour his ponderings and lead others to switch off immediately, but he hopes that this blog will be wide-ranging; addressing the human condition and that of all creation. Hopefully it will give expression to joy, fun, humour, stimulation, sadness, uncertainty and struggle as well as being a place where friends will offer their contributions too – there is no monopoly on experiencing and reflecting on life’s journey which some of us think of as a pilgrimage.

These are big words and aspirations for a little cat, but you know, cats have hidden depths and perceptions… Pagli xx “

Pagli, wrote that Five years ago this month at the height of the Covid Pandemic. This blog began as a way of reaching out to people full of fear, anxiety and experiencing lockdown. For many it was a time of loneliness; for others, bereavement. There was a pausing in our everyday dealings with each other. We kept our distance and we prayed hard for those working in the NHS and care homes, as well as other key members of society who tried to make our lives easier. Many of these were unsung heroes like refuse collectors, funeral directors, neighbours who made sure elderly people were cared for and received shopping.

Much has changed in society and in the world since those days but we have new Pandemics to try and cope with ~ climate change, the health of our planet and all who live on it, including the animal kingdom, birds, fish and the care of Nature. A bigger Pandemic is the state of humanity. Wars and destruction of people, countries, and those who have no one to speak up for them. A lust for political power is leading to violence, hatred, uncaring and unloving behaviour, for example.
There are homeless and poor people throughout the world. Add to that the great plight of those forced to leave homes and countries because of despotic regimes. Not since the Second World War has there been such a displacement of people. Humanity has always been nomadic but often through choice. That is not the case today for millions. People who lived normal lives with homes, jobs, security now wander from place to place with nothing but pain and fear. Worse, when they risk their lives travelling to seemingly safer places many are treated as scroungers, unwanted and very unloved. Indeed, they are hated, mistreated, and labelled with expletives which shame humanity and all of us, because when some are denied rights to live, to be, to be cared for ~ we are all guilty.

In St Matthew’s Gospel, Chapter 25, verses 31 to 46, Jesus puts it as only God can! You don’t feed me, you give me no drink, you show me no care or kindness, you ill-treat people, you speak harshly, unthinkingly, and you demonstrate a failure of Spirit and, God says that because of this you will be judged.
It was St. John of the Cross who said, at the end of life, we will be judged on how much we have loved.

Christians and all religious faiths live within the Universal Love of God. All believers in God, however that is manifested, have a duty (and a joy) to share all that is good in the world with each other and with all the creatures of Nature. We don’t own the planet nor anything on it. We are stewards, tenants and carers of all that God has given to us for what is but a short time for each of us.
Mr. Ramsey said in Virginia Woolf’s novel To the Lighthouse, when he mused on how we might be spoken of after our death, that he thought that our fame would not last so long.
‘if you look from a mountain top down the long wastes of the ages, the very stone one kicks with one’s boot will outlast Shakespeare.’

Yet the gift of Life, equal for all, when it is lived kindly, caringly, lovingly and prayerful, can make a huge difference to all life on earth ~ The only difference, under God’s loving care, that actually will.

Mr G, assisted by Pagli. Xx

We look forward to continue sharing our Ponderings via this Blog. Mr G has remained faithful to the intentions I set him though he has been helped in that respect by regular contributors. His friend dear Joyce Smith who sadly died, gave lots of incites through her photos and her quotes. Dear Gill Henwood continues to enhance our pages with marvellous photos and ponderings; My friend Piers Northam’s poetic skills and reflections are much valued. My lovely friend Lynn Hurry has given us wonderful photos of Nature and animals (not least the little foxes!) and also by feeding us with her spiritual and factual ponderings about God’s amazing Creation, My artist friend, Kay Gibbons has shared her profound artistic talent with us. Many others have helped to enrich this Blog. Thanks to all who have contributed. Thanks also to so many of you who have supported us with your interest, comments and just sharing this Blog as friends – from all over the world. If you wish to comment on anything, you can reach us by email on geoffrey_connor@ priest.com
Thanks to WordPress for making the blog possible. Finally, a special thanks to all whom we follow. There are such wonderful Blogs out there and it’s a delight to share your ponderings.
Pagli–Ji xx

As Dag Hammerskjold (former General Secretary of the United Nations once prayed:
For all that has been, Thanks.
For all that will be, Yes!

August 23rd 2025