Remembering

I have always thought that there is something quite special about this time of year. The colours of the trees before their leaves fall, the smell and general feel of the place. Yet, in a matter of weeks the landscape around us will be looking very bleak - quite dead and barren. We may not care for the darkness of the winter months but we know that come next spring, there will indeed be new life and an abundance of colour again.

Another reason why I like this time of year, is that the Church's season echoes so much of what goes on in the natural order. While autumn is a time of death and remembering, the Church also remembers. All Saints Day and All Souls Day are times when we remember with thanksgiving, those real women and men of every age, in whose lives we can glimpse something of God and heaven.

With Remembrance Sunday recently, we had the opportunity to give thanks again for all those who have given their lives, so that we can enjoy the freedom of democracy and justice.

Remembering is an important part of the Christian life. Hopefully we can look back to the past with grateful hearts, for all that others have done for us. But we also need to look forward as well. So we give thanks for all the Saints and find encouragement from their example. We give thanks for our departed loved ones and friends and especially those who have given their lives for us. Let us also pray and work earnestly for peace and justice throughout the world. In this way we are linked into the past, but continue to move on, along our pilgrimage of faith.

By Fr. Nigel Stimpson, Vicar of Ravensthorpe and Thornhill Lees

with Savile Town.

For and on behalf of the Churches Together in Dewsbury.