Dear Friends

In some ways November is an interesting month. It always seems to me to be a month “in tension”. The autumn is well established, and with the days shortening the winter seems ever closer. For a few weeks there have been Christmas-related goods in the shop windows and of course Christmas catalogues have been coming through the letterbox since August. But November isn’t Christmas; it’s not even Advent. People around us seem to want to rush through November and the first three weeks of December without really being attentive to the hour-by-hour and day-by-day passage of time. It is so easy to get caught up with the rush and trends of modern society that we insulate ourselves from the real heart-beat of God’s creation in this late autumn month.

Yet what has November to offer? A quick glance at the lectionary shows it to be as rich a month as any other. Starting with two of the significant festivals of the Christian Church – All Saints’ Day on the 1^st, and All Souls’ Day on the 2^nd – reminders both of our membership of “that great multitude which no man can number, whose hope was in the Word made Flesh,” as the bidding prayer for the service of 9 lessons and carols puts it, and of our own mortality and that of those close to us. St Leonard’s day, our Patronal day, is on the 6^th., and several “home-grown” saints and martyrs, and great Christian leaders have their commemoration days in November: Richard Hooker (Priest and teacher - 1600) on the 3^rd, William Temple (Archbishop of Canterbury -1944) on the 6^th, Charles Simeon (Priest and evangelical divine – 1836) on the 13^th, Hilda (Abbess of Whitby – 680) on the 19^th, Edmund (King of the East Angles, Martyr – 870) on the 20^th, and Isaac Watts (Hymn writer – 1748) on 25^th. November ends with another festival, that of St Andrew the Apostle on the 30^th. So, not a month to get through as quickly as possible in a mad rush to get to Christmas, but a month to savour, and if possible find time to spend quietly considering the lives and words of the great teachers and saints. November can be a really spiritually fruitful month if we can step aside from the clatter of the commercial world and take some time to prayerfully lay ourselves before God, who is always more willing to listen than we are to speak.

As, day by day, prayer is offered in Cathedrals, churches, and private homes, there is the linking of human experiences and aspirations with the divine heart of a loving heavenly father. Prayer is a great gift we have been given, a wonderful privilege, and an awesome responsibility. Prayer has been called the life-breath of Christian faith, and pictures such as that of God breathing life into the world in creation, and Jesus breathing on his disciples as a mark of the forthcoming of the Holy Spirit both inform and illuminate our thinking about prayer being a way God can breathe life into our souls. Prayer doesn’t have to be full of words – God often speaks in the still small voice and times of silence. Prayer is communication in both directions; just as in any relationship, if the communication traffic is all one-way, then the relationship is hard to sustain. It has been said that we have two ears and one mouth, which indicates the proportions in which they should be used! Prayer can take many forms, and different people find different styles, postures, times of day and methods suit them. The formal intercessions offered weekly during the Eucharist are but a small portion of the total life of prayer of the Church, but these intercessions are a way we can all join together and express our gratitude, our concerns, and our desires to God. We have an excellent group of people who take responsibility for the intercessions Sunday by Sunday, but there is always space for more to become involved in this form of ministry. I am planning a workshop day in spring 2008 on “Prayer and Leading Intercessions”, and hope to include a section on “Reading in Church”. This is intended for all those who are involved in intercessions. It is for the experienced as well as the novices, for the confident as well as for the timid and diffident, and anyone interested in becoming involved in either of these areas of ministry will also be most welcome. It should be an enjoyable un-stuffy day of enrichment and learning, which will help us all to share our experiences and enhance our skills. If you are involved in intercessions, or would like to be, then please be prepared to make this day a priority in your diaries when the date is finalised.

So, during November, don’t rush through the month, but savour it, and take the opportunities along the way to be quiet and reflect on the abundant love of God. Advent gives us a formal and liturgical time to prepare for Christmas, but November is altogether different. Let’s not confuse and telescope them.

With best wishes,

Richard