September 2026

 

The days are getting shorter, the temperatures are (at last!) taking a downward path, and, in short, the ‘season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ will soon be upon us. Nature will be preparing for winter, plants will begin to shed their leaves, and the squirrels in the Square will be burying nuts  ̶   a time of involution in the natural world.

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But is it so for Homo sapiens with his multifarious talents to protect himself against a seasonal involution? I would suggest that, on the contrary, autumn can be a time of evolution, a time of discovery, indeed of renewal. New terms begin at schools and universities, evening classes are held in many and often obstruse subjects, winter games (for those who are happy to be cold, wet, and muddy) appear on our parched sports fields: at S. Saviour’s we have four new choral scholars joining us in September, our concert season resumes, and we begin our autumn study course on Wednesday evenings.

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I would suggest that the turning of the seasons can metamorphose involution into evolution. As in Lent, the return of normality (?) in September is a time to reflect on our own spiritual needs in prayer as well as a time to celebrate the natural pleasures of autumn tints and smells as nature goes to sleep for the winter. After all, winter is only preparation for the glories of spring, and it was in a garden on a spring morning many moons ago that Our Lord rose from the dead to bring eternal hope in the midst of a darkening world.

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Deacon Douglas Macmillan

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The Collect

 

Almighty God, whose only Son has opened for us
a new and living way into your presence:
give us pure hearts and steadfast wills
to worship you in spirit and in truth;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.