From Rev Frank Cliff 

1st October 2018
 as published in October Parish Life
 
As I write this the weathermen have said that it’s the season of autumn. Well it doesn’t feel like Autumn to me after all we haven’t had the Last Night of the Proms yet!
 
However it reminds me that seasons are important in our lives and it will soon be time for the annual parade of the sugar beet lorries going up the A47 to Cantley
 
Our lives are shaped by seasons both in the world and in our inner lives. In the church we move through the seasons from Advent to Christmas to Easter to Ordinary Time and back to Advent. The idea of season is woven into the very fabric of our church life, it is an integral part of our worship and prayer life
 
But, as usual with me, it makes me wonder if we pay enough attention to our seasons? We are approaching the 100th anniversary of the First World War in the season of Remembrance-tide when we remember all who suffered in conflict both in that war and subsequent actions. It is a time of bittersweet, fond memories of those we remember but see no more
 
It is the seasonality of this time that gives shape to our thoughts and actions. But do we give enough thought to the other seasons of the Year? Can we recover the meaning of Easter and Christmas from the almost overwhelming commercialism that pervades those times?
 
As God’s helpers in his Mission to bring about the Kingdom here on earth it is our joy and duty to do all we can to remind each other and those we come into contact with, that the seasons of life are part of God’s ineffable design and that we should celebrate those seasons in thought, word, song and prayer
 
So our Challenge is that we must wake up to the seasons both in the world and within the life and spirit of the church, we must become active and do as Christ commanded us:
"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20) Amen
 

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