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Flower & Cleaning Rota

Oct 4th   Mrs E Davidson & Mrs J Newstead

Oct 11^th & 18th  Miss M Jones-Evans & Mrs A Palmer

Oct 25^th & Nov 1st  Miss R Elsden & Mrs J Keable

 October: A Season for Gathering In

October arrives in our Suffolk villages with a familiar mixture of gold and grey. The hedgerows shine with berries, fields settle after harvest, and the churchyard leaves begin their annual conspiracy to cover every pathway five minutes after someone has swept it.

It is a month of gathering in. Tractors have carried home much of the harvest; gardeners eye the last courgettes with the wary expression of people who have already eaten them in soup, cake and possibly Sunday pudding. At church, harvest hymns remind us that food does not simply appear on a supermarket shelf. It comes through soil, rain, sunlight, skill and patient labour—and through the generous hand of God.

“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.” — Psalm 24:1

That short verse is both comfort and challenge. Comfort, because the world is held by God even when headlines feel unsettled and the nights draw in. Challenge, because if the earth belongs to the Lord, we are caretakers rather than owners. The apples, allotments, rivers, verges and neighbours entrusted to us deserve more than passing appreciation.

October offers simple ways to practise gratitude. We can share spare produce, check on someone who finds darker evenings lonely, support the food bank, or leave a corner of the garden untidy for wildlife. This last act is especially attractive: at last, a Christian justification for not doing the gardening.

There is wisdom in the falling leaves too. Trees do not cling anxiously to everything they grew in summer. They let go, conserving strength for the season ahead. Perhaps we also carry things that need releasing: an old grievance, an impossible expectation, or the belief that we must manage alone. Prayer can begin as simply as opening our hands and saying, “Lord, help me trust you with this.”

So, as clocks change, coats reappear and every village conversation starts with the weather, may October teach us to notice God’s goodness. Let us receive what is given, care for what is entrusted, and share what we can. And when the rain arrives sideways—as Suffolk rain occasionally insists on doing—we can still give thanks for shelter, companionship and the promise that no season lasts forever.

Reverend Dan – Benefice Rector