The Minister writes… from our October 2025 newsletter
I always feel rather nostalgic at this time of year. The distinctive scent of autumn instantly transports me back to my childhood and that of our own children’s. It brings with it memories of the start of a new school year with all the ensuing excitement and perhaps a touch of nervousness too, the crispness of the mornings, and the afternoon walk home, scrunching leaves and acorns underfoot. I remember fondly Sunday tea-times watching family TV series: back in my day Black Beauty and Anne of Green Gables vied for top spot; later, watching with our own children, those had been replaced with The Borrowers, The Phoenix and the Carpet, and my all-time favourite: The Chronicles of Narnia. What a joy to see the books I had loved since girlhood brought to life on TV. Comparing the computer graphics and animatronics of the late 1980’s with what we take for granted these days, I realise how basic they were – but of course, I was a child brought up on Daktari and the early Dr Who series so they seemed very advanced at the time!
Walking Jackson the other day and enjoying the beauty of Keats’ ‘season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,’ I indulged the bitter-sweetness of past memories. It seemed to me that life was simpler then. Our lives weren’t taken over by computers and phones and, although there have always been demands on our time, there was more opportunity to pause before responding, more space to breathe. Yet, as I looked back through these rather rose-coloured spectacles, I was reminded of all the good things that come with technology. The sharing of a photo taken on my phone, some thoughts that might become a sermon recorded before I could forget them, the picking up of an urgent message, the ability of arranging a family get-together with one WhatsApp message rather than copious phone calls. And the advances in medicine and medical technology mean this is a far safer era to live in!
It’s easy to look back and think things were better in ‘the good old days’: larger congregations, flourishing Sunday Schools, more of a sense of community in our local areas, more people willing and with the time available to volunteer for those organisations that depend on such help and struggle without it. But maybe those times weren’t better, they were just different. We cannot halt progress; we move with it or we get left behind. Mourning what has gone drains us of the energy and enthusiasm to embrace the here and now.
There is one constant throughout it all: God and his love. He never changes and it never fails. He is always with us. He is there whether we are storing up new memories or struggling to remember old ones. He is there whether we are warmed by recollections of good times past or saddened by the loss of them and the people we shared them with. He doesn’t leave us dwelling in the past but instead urges us on to new things, giving us the wisdom to discern and the strength to undertake what is necessary for us to walk in his way.
Several hymns speak to this theme and I was torn as to which words to leave you with. Perhaps these two say it best of all:
Through all the changing scenes of life, in trouble and in joy,
the praises of my God shall still my heart and tongue employ.
(Nahum Tate and Nicholas Brady’s hymn based on the words of Psalm 34)
And:
Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father,
there is no shadow of turning with thee;
thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not;
as thou hast been thou forever wilt be.
(Thomas Chisolm)
Wherever your thoughts and memories may lead you this autumn, never forget the love and faithfulness of our heavenly Father, always with you, constant through past, present and future.
With every blessing,
Sharon