Quiet remembering

1 Nov 2024 • From our Priest-in-Charge

“Not yesterday I learned to know
The love of bare November days”
(from ‘My November Guest’ by Robert Frost)

Darling November is for me the most reflective of months, a time for remembering and pondering, before the exuberant jolly jamboree of December.  The winter unknown lies ahead, the year of memories stretches out behind.  An eventide season characterised by a sweet, gentle melancholy.  Our culture embraces November with various remembrances.  All Souls church services afford us the opportunity to remember, in calm candlelit stillness, our loved ones who are now out of eye’s sight and hand’s holding.  Hot on its heels comes Bonfire Night, with its whizzes and bangs, commemorating something I’m never quite comfortable with.  And then the national call goes up to remember with silent dignity those whose lives are lost in the military’s quest for peace.

Moments of quiet stillness, intentional points of contemplation, prayer and meditation, are a blessing in my life that I all too often forgo in the hubbub and busyness.  Words and sounds are everywhere, all the time.  If I steal such a moment in my solitude, I often sense that God draws nearer, and I am not alone.  In a quite different way, there is something heavenly about being together with others in calm reflective quietness.  I love Taizé worship and group mindfulness meditations for that reason.  It is my hope to start introducing more intentional silence into some of our church services (and not just the kind of silence that comes when I momentarily forget what I’m meant to be doing).

In Garway church in December we will have a Blue Christmas gathering especially for those who find that time of year particularly sad – more on that in next month’s edition.

I hope that November will afford you some gentle, still moments to reflect and ponder, either companionably or in quiet solitude. I pray that if you are remembering a lost loved one, the silence is kind and not harsh.

With love and blessing,

Rev Angie x

P.S. Our Benefice All Souls service is on 3 November. You will be given a warm welcome.