20/09/2026
Autumn is a season of beginnings as well as endings 🍂
As nature turns towards rest, students return to schools, colleges and universities. These Worship Words from Rev. Sue Woolley invite us to embrace the rhythms of the natural world and the sense of possibility that comes with a new academic year.
Meditation for Autumn
Autumn is a beautiful time of year:
The long heat of the summer is over,
and we can settle down to enjoy this
in-between season of warm, sunny days,
and still light evenings,
before the winter cold sets in.
The harvest has been largely gathered in,
and we give thanks for it, as it
reconnects us with the rhythms
of the natural world around us.
The leaves of the trees are beginning to turn –
every possible shade of red, russet, burgundy,
copper, brown, gold, yellow and faded green
that the eye could see or the heart imagine.
Their beauty takes the breath away,
especially when the multifarious colours
are backlit by sunshine against a deep blue sky.
The summer birds swirl in the skies above us,
preparing for the long flight to different climes.
We notice the yin and yang of ploughed
and stubbled fields, dark brown and pale gold,
the sails of the wind turbines turning lazily,
and the path beneath our feet is bathed in sunlight.
In the schools and colleges and universities,
students of all ages are dusting off their brains and settling
back into the business of being educated once more,
one year older than they were last Autumn.
The natural world may be turning towards dormancy,
towards rest and completion, but for them,
it is a new year, full of opportunities and new possibilities.
[silence]
Whether autumn symbolises a time of decline towards winter,
or a new year of excitement and curiosity,
may we pause awhile to give thanks,
for the opportunities it offers to sense, once again,
the presence of the Spirit all around us.
May it be so, Amen
