Thought for the Week: Being Gardened by God – 16th October 2026As I write this thought for the week, I reflect on Harvest time. For many of us we will have just celebrated, or be about to celebrate, Harvest in our church communities. I have been brought to the passage in John 15: 1-8, The Vine and the Branches:“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples."So each of us is being gardened by God. We are being pruned as individuals and as churches, and we need to recognise that this is the way of God. It is a good thing. I personally am not a great gardener. In fact it would be true to say simply, I do not garden. My skills in the garden extend to moving furniture and digging holes. However, those who garden will tell you that pruning is a way of cutting back to help flowers and trees to grow. This is the same in God’s garden. He prunes us so that we may grow and bear fruit, becoming better disciples. Similarly he does this with our churches cutting back what we do, so more effort can be put into the right activities. As humans we often resist this cutting back but as Christians we should welcome it and follow Jesus’ model of accepting that sometimes there is need to do different things or do the same things in different ways.So I ask you are we wedded to doing the same thing day after day, week after week noting ‘we have always done it that way’ or are we open to being pruned by the Great Gardener, ready to bear greater fruit?Alan JohnstonLicensed Lay Minister
Thought for the Week: At the school gateDaniel Khan – 9th October 2026Several mornings a week I drop my grandchildren at primary school and today, while I was standing in the playground, I realised there is something rather wonderful about the primary school drop-off.For a few minutes each morning, the school gate becomes a little community. Children arrive with bags bouncing on their backs, coats half-zipped, water bottles swinging from their hands. Some are full of excitement about the day ahead and others are, perhaps, still thinking about what happened at breakfast. For many of them the future is simply too far away to worry about, after all, there are games to be played with friends! They are wonderfully present in the moment.And then there are the grown-ups. Parents, grandparents and carers gather at the gate, exchanging news, comparing notes and solving the small problems of family life. There are smiles and occasional takeaway coffees, hurried conversations and, often, someone saying, "Don't worry, I'll pick them up." There are offers of help, practical kindnesses, and friendships which have grown almost without anyone noticing.Yet beneath the ordinary bustle, there can be very different emotions. One child may be running through the gate with excitement, while another is clinging tightly to a parent's hand, worried about what the day will bring. One parent may be chatting cheerfully with friends while inwardly carrying a burden that nobody else knows about. We don't always see what people bring with them to the school gate. Perhaps that is why the school gate can be a surprisingly good picture of the Christian life.Jesus tells us, "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (Matthew 6:34). There is something of a childlike quality in the invitation to live in the present moment. We can spend so much of our lives anticipating what might happen next that we can miss the grace of what God is giving us today. There is a freedom in that which we, as adults, can easily lose.Look again at the school gate and there is another lesson, that we need one another. The person who offers to walk a child into school, the grandparent who helps with the younger ones, the parent who notices that someone looks troubled and asks, "Are you all right?” - these small acts of kindness make a community. The Church is meant to be like that too. Not simply a collection of individuals who happen to worship in the same building, but a people who encourage one another and offer practical help. As St Paul writes, "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way, you will fulfil the law of Christ." (Galatians 6:2).And then there is the gate itself. Every morning the children arrive and are entrusted to someone else for a while. Parents and carers let go of their little hands and watch them disappear through the doors. They must go in, grow, learn, make friends, make mistakes, and discover the world for themselves. And perhaps that is what the Christian life looks like too most of the time. Sometimes we need someone to walk with us, we must learn and grow, and sometimes we are the ones who can offer a helping hand. And through it all, we trust that Jesus is there.So, the next time you find yourself standing at the school gate watching the children rush through the doors, perhaps pause for a moment. Notice the excitement. Notice the worries. Notice the conversations and the kindnesses. Notice the people who are quietly looking after one another. And perhaps give thanks that this little, ordinary community is showing us something of God's kingdom, a place where we are invited to live in the present, to trust the one who holds the future, and to walk together.Daniel KhanLicensed Lay Minister
Thought for the Week: Time to Harvest2nd October 2026 - AlanIt is amazing to think we are already in October. The nights are drawing in as it gets darker earlier and many of us will soon be going to work in the dark and coming home again in the dark. At the same time the autumnal breeze will start to replace those pleasant summer days. It won’t be long before we pine for the heatwave we complained about throughout the summer months. With autumn comes the celebration of harvest, with a number of celebrations taking place across our community of churches, in the coming weeks (Copmanthorpe had theirs last week). While in church, in line with secular thinking, we think about the food harvest and thank God for his goodness and for what he provides, it is also important to think about our mission as Christians, what has become known as the Great Commission. “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). Our job, our mission, is the harvesting of souls, to bring increasing numbers to know and love the Lord. I wonder sometimes in our busy lives we forget that is our primary role as Christians. Now I know many of you will be thinking, surely our first and foremost responsibility is to love the Lord and to follow God’s commandments. I stress however there are very few occasions in the bible when Jesus gives such a direct command. He is telling us as Christians our role is to spread the word of God, spread God’s love and in particular the death and resurrection of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.So our challenge, in our seven church communities, is to look outward, to look beyond our buildings and spread the Good News. Do we do this? Do we take all our opportunities? How often do we have the ‘Jesus’ conversation with those around us? Quite often it is not as easy to do, as it sounds. We should however seek out those opportunities. At the same time remembering that often we may be sowers and at other times reapers. In my own journey I recall those sowers. People who were given the role of prodding me, letting me know the message, until God’s chosen reaper came along. We need to be ready and to be active in the sowing and reaping department and God will do the rest.Alan (Licensed Lay Minister)
Thought for the Week: A Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness 25th September 2026Recently, after a welcome shower of rain, I took a stroll around a local park. As I walked on the damp grass, and past the dripping trees, I became aware of that distinctive smell that seems to arise at this time of year in gardens and parks – slightly earthy, grassy, and mossy, yet strangely uplifting. I was reminded of that poem I had studied at school, many years ago, that spoke of the “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”and which described the arrival of autumn.John Keats’ beautiful words seem to capture something of the particular character of September and early autumn. The mornings can be misty, the evenings draw in, and the fields and gardens offer the final abundance of summer. Apples hang heavy on the trees, blackberries ripen along the hedgerows, and the colours of the countryside begin their slow change.The Christian tradition has long recognised autumn as a time to pause and give thanks. The season reminds us that, despite all our hard work and ingenuity, we remain dependent upon gifts that are ultimately beyond our control: rain and sunshine, fertile soil, the changing seasons and the mysterious processes by which a tiny seed becomes a plant bearing fruit. Gardeners and farmers alike have certainly been challenged by the summer sun this year!In our own lives too, there are also different seasons, as written in Ecclesiastes:“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)There are times of sowing and times of reaping; times of growth and times when we seem simply to be waiting. Sometimes our lives feel full of “mellow fruitfulness”, while at other times we may experience something more like winter.The beauty of the changing seasons can also remind us that God is present in every season of our lives. We do not have to be constantly productive or successful to be loved by God. There is wisdom in allowing ourselves to rest, to notice, and to give thanks. The fruit that God seeks in us is not simply measured by what we achieve. It is seen in lives shaped by love, patience, kindness, generosity and faithfulness.So, as we enjoy the misty mornings and the abundance of the autumn hedgerows, perhaps we might take a little time to notice the gifts around us. We might give thanks for the people who have encouraged us, for the places that sustain us, for food shared around a table, and for the quiet blessings that are so easily overlooked.And perhaps the autumn season can also encourage us to look beyond ourselves. Where there is abundance, may we share. Where there is loneliness, may we offer companionship. Where there is need, may we respond with practical generosity.The season will change, as it always does. The leaves will fall, the fields will become bare, and winter will come. Yet the God who is present in the abundance of autumn will not abandon us in the seasons that follow:“I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)For now, though, let us rejoice in this “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”, and give thanks to the God whose goodness surrounds us, whose creation sustains us, and whose love bears fruit in our lives.Daniel Khan(Licenced Lay Minister)
