From the Vicarage - October

Does anybody else remember the escapades of “My Naughty Little Sister...” - a series of stories written by Dorothy Edwards and illustrated by Shirley Hughes? Returning to them now, they would certainly not cut the mustard when it comes to award winning literature, or more specifically the requirements of political correctness. But when I read them as a young child, I knew nothing about all of that – I simply delighted in hearing of the mischievous behaviour of the little girl at the centre of them all!

I still remember the sentence blurted out by the narrator’s ‘naughty little sister’ upon arrival at her best little boy-friend’s birthday party. Having been ‘schooled’ by her own mother to be a good and polite little girl who would say ‘please’ and ‘thank-you’ at the appropriate times and ‘thank you very much for having me’ before leaving, the over-zealous little sister decided to get that all over and done with in one go, allowing her to get on with the more pressing business of claiming her rightful share of jelly and blancmange, sandwiches and cake! Arriving at the party, she boldly approached the mother hosting the party, and out it tumbled,  

‘ “Please and thank you and thank you very much for having me “

all at once, just like that, before she forgot to be polite… ’

After that it was all downhill, and a very sick little girl at the end of it all!

We will begin this month of October at St Oswald’s with a Celebration of Harvest. As we do each year, we will bring to

the Festival an attitude of being truly appreciative of the colour and taste and fruitfulness of creation, and the goodness of all which buds and grows around us. Festivals have much in common with Parties! But the other aspect of Harvest is an attitude of sorrow and penitence for the ‘sickness’ of greed and inequality, and for our lack of care and respect for creation and community.  It is so easy to take the gifts of creation for granted; to fail to pause and say ‘please’ before helping ourselves, and ‘thank-you’ for what we receive. We act as if we are the owners of all we can see and survey, rather than guests and custodians of this good earth for a brief period before it is time to say, ‘thank you for having me’ and pass the gifts we have enjoyed onwards to those who follow.

October will continue to be a time to focus upon being thankful, here at St Oswald’s. We

want to say thank you for our church and for the many gifts, of many people, which enable our village church to be a place and a people which exists to gather those who wish to belong and to worship, and to serve those we can help or support. We also want to listen to your thoughts on that, hence last month’s bunting pieces and the questions which came with them. We plan to display the bunting pieces in thanksgiving for all who wish to celebrate with us (do come and see them!) and be assured we will reflect upon the messages they carry as we continue to seek ways of sharing what we can offer, more fully and effectively.  So ‘Please’ still complete your Bunting if you can, and ‘Thank You’ to those who have.

Love & Prayers        Carolyn               

The Reverend Carolyn A James