From Rev'd Louise

Monthly reflection

November 2025 Acorns and God

Many sources this year, from the Woodland Trust to the BBC, have been commenting on the fact that this year is a ‘mast year’, a year when there is a particular abundance of acorns and other fruits and seeds. In the middle of October, Derby Diocese holds its annual Clergy Conference, and this year I came home from Clergy Conference with two acorns in my pocket. What, you might ask, do acorns have to do with a clergy conference?

Well, the theme of this year’s Clergy Conference was ‘The parable of the sower,’ a parable Jesus told about a sower throwing seeds lavishly over good soils and bad; throwing seed over the path, over rocky ground, and among thorns and weeds, as well as onto good soil; throwing the seed into places where it had very little chance of growing and producing a harvest, as well as into places where it was likely to grow.

As you can imagine, over the last 2000 years there have been many interpretations of this parable. Often commentators picture the ‘seed’ as being the knowledge of God and his love for us, and they explain they how we can be like the various soils, with many things preventing the love of God really ‘taking root’ in our lives, but how when it does we produce a ‘rich harvest’ of good in the world. God is pictured as like the sower, lavishing his love and his care on both those who will respond and those who won’t.

Jesus regularly taught about God, using examples from the natural world, and several speakers at this year’s Clergy Conference focused on how the natural world, God’s creation, reveals God’s character. One speaker spoke about God’s character revealed in the extravagant abundance of nature, telling us how in its life time a healthy oak tree produces about a million acorns – hence the acorns in my pocket - (although only one is needed to replace the tree itself), and how that extravagant abundance of the oak tree sustains other life in countless ways. Another speaker spoke of their ‘church in the wilderness’, meeting in forgotten or waste places, inviting in passers-by, and learning how God relates to us by noticing, and observing closely, how a community of life and growth emerges and flourishes, in places that we may tend not to value.

So this month, my challenge and my prayer for myself is to seek to become better at looking closely at the natural world around me, and letting it teach me about God. And my invitation to all of us is to join me on that adventure.

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October 2025 Autumn

I often approach autumn with mixed feelings. Of all our seasons, it is the season that most prompts me to look both backwards and forwards, and for me it is a season that prompts both thankfulness and an awareness that for many autumn is a time of increasing anxiety.

Some of my earliest memories of autumn include picking mushrooms from the fields in the early morning before the overnight mist lifted, before going home to eat them for breakfast. And memories of scuffing through fallen leaves, or picking fruits and berries from woods and hedgerows, together with smells of jam and chutney making. For me, autumn still includes looking back with thankfulness over the summer’s garden harvest (including both what we will eat, and provision of food and shelter for wildlife for the months ahead) and looking forward, sometimes with trepidation, to the list of tasks to try to complete before winter sets in. And as I feel myself beginning to long for the time when daylight hours begin to lengthen rather than shorten, I am aware that for many the approaching darker and colder days bring anxieties about finances or health.

In the church calendar too, autumn is time for looking both backwards and forwards. Harvest encourages us to look back with thankfulness for God’s generous provision, and forwards to how we can honour and cherish the world that sustains us. All Souls’ encourages us to look back in gratitude for all those who are no longer with us but have lit our lives with love, and forwards to the eternal home with him that God offers to all. Remembrance encourages us to look back in sorrow for lives lost in conflict and in the service of others, and forwards in hope to God’s vision of a world where conflict and injustice are no more.

But Christianity teaches us to do more than simply look. Christianity also teaches us to work to become part of the future we long to see. As Christianity teaches us to look forward with hope to a time when God's ways are known on earth, when all conflicts cease and all creation flourishes, so Christianity invites us to look backwards to discern the impact that we, individually and collectively, have on the world around us. And Christianity invites us to commit ourselves to do all that we can to end all that harms, and to promote all that brings about flourishing.

So my prayer for all of us this month is that we would each know, or know afresh, God’s love and goodness towards us, and would each long to share that love and goodness with all.

September 2025 Deeply rooted

Two news stories have caught my attention recently. One is the various accounts about ‘autumn coming early,’ and the experts’ response. The other is accounts about the impact of solar farms on agriculture. Both of these caught my attention because as I reflected on them, I also found myself reflecting on my faith.

I’m sure most of us will have noticed ‘signs of autumn;’ trees dropping their leaves, blackberries ripe, or even mostly over, and so on. In the vicarage garden, we have a very mixed picture. Some plants, like runner beans, chard, chillies and tomatoes, are producing the best harvest we’ve had since we came to Bradwell. Others, like rhubarb, raspberries and blackberries, are doing poorly or finishing early. Experts are saying that what we are seeing is not an ‘early autumn,’ (autumn changes are triggered by changes in daylight length) but is the result of plants being stressed by the very hot and dry spring and summer we’ve had. But what really resonated with me was their comment that the plants that have coped best with this year’s challenging weather are those that are deep rooted.

I am reminded of the many passages in the Bible urging hearers to be ‘rooted’ in God’s love. From Psalm 1, saying that those who ‘delight’ in the ways of God are like trees rooted by streams of water, never withering and continually bearing fruit, through to many passages in the letters written by the apostle St Paul to early Christian churches. For example, in Colossians chapter 2 and in Ephesians chapter 3, Paul urges believers to let their ‘roots’ grow deeply down into the love of Christ, so that they may be filled with the ‘fulness of God,’ and God may work through their lives. And throughout Christian history there are countless examples – maybe, like me, you’ve seen some of them – of people who have a deep faith showing strength and resilience in times of difficulty, and being able to offer support to others experiencing burdens of many kinds.

But what about the solar farms? Well, there has been a lot of research showing that crops produce higher yields when grown under solar panels, but the latest that caught my attention was research from France showing that grape yields increase by between 30% and 60% when vines are grown under solar panels. And I found myself reflecting that, just as crops benefit from shade and shelter, we all have times too when, however deep our roots, we need shelter and protection. And again, the Bible urges us to seek the protection we need ‘under the shadow of God’s wings,’ The Bible is full of imagery of God as protector and safe space.

So my prayer for all of us this month is that, however we understand God, we might each seek to live our lives deeply rooted in love, finding the protection and care that we need ourselves, and being able to ‘bear fruit’ by offering love and care to others.