Dear Friends,
And so, September breaks in upon us. Already the weather has that distinctly autumnal feel to it. The days are shortening in dramatic fashion. the leaves on the trees are beginning to turn from green to gold as watery sunshine does its best to break through the gathering gloom that is the grey ridden cloudy skies…
…The 3rd weekend in September has always been a busy one for us in the Free Church. It is the weekend of what was called ‘Open House’, now renamed ‘Open City’; the occasion on which buildings more usually closed to the public are thrown open for people to explore. As a Grade 1 listed, Edwin Lutyens’ designed building, the Free Church invariably attracts good numbers of visitors. And in spite of Covid-19 restrictions, this year’s ‘Open City’ weekend is going ahead and again we are to be involved…
- On Friday, 18th September @ 1pm a Piano recital given by Masa Tayama…
- On Saturday, 19th September, the Church will be open between 10am & 5pm, and in addition we will be holding a car boot/table top sale in the car park…
- On Sunday, 20th September, following our morning worship service @ 11am we will be open to visitors until 5pm…
…We will need volunteers to help with stewarding, refreshments, running stalls etc and so if you can help at all, please let me know asap so that we can finalise the arrangements for what will be both a challenging and an exciting weekend…
…Anyway, back to autumn. I have a somewhat eccentric taste in music. My ‘all time’ favourite song is ‘Refugees’ by Van De Graaf Generator. It describes the 4 seasons as points on a compass. I will be posting the whole song on FACEBOOK as our hymn for today on Wednesday, but here is the writer – Peter Hamill’s – depiction of autumn… ‘…West is where all days will someday end;
Where the colours turn from grey to gold,
And you can be with the friends.
And light flakes the golden clouds above all;
West is Mike and Susie,
West is where I love.
There we shall spend our final days of our lives;
Tell the same old stories: yeah well,
At least we tried.
Into the West, smiles on our faces, we’ll go;
Oh, yes, and our apologies to those
Who’ll never really know the way…’
Enjoy the autumn, it has a richness all of its own…