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I hope you have had a restorative summer! For many families, it was a time to break from daily routines, including school runs, homework, and planning, to a more relaxed, easy-going pace. For others, days and weeks may have changed little, except for less heavy rush-hour traffic and more time outside, enjoying fair weather and warm summer days with longer daylight hours.
Thinking of weather patterns and the summer of 2025, having the sight of brown parched gardens and endless watering with watering cans; no use of hosepipes here even to wash a car or keep the ponds topped up! Made you think and ponder about the state of our fragile world.
This draws my mind to the unquestioned, now entrenched concern of climate change and global warming. It is now affecting us all, and we know it will have a more marked impact on people where rains, crop survival and water supplies are never guaranteed even in the best of years.
Jesus’ Perspective
For the Christian disciple, churchgoers and people of long standing or fledgling faith, we may be reminded of Jesus’ words in Matthew 24, particularly speaking of wars, famines and earthquakes:
“…but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.”
Matthew 24:6
Whoever we are, whatever stage of life we are at and however many challenges large or small face us day to day, the Christian message does offer us all much to hope for and trust in, as we are called to place our trust in Jesus Himself who calls us to hear, believe and follow Him.
Yes the bible tells us much of the root causes of our world’s divisions, pain and struggles: but more than that through Jesus we are offered the rescue plan laid down and made available to anyone who will receive it.
I am full of hope and gratitude as I look back on 3 years as a trainee Vicar in Wath much of which was through all the challenges and change of those Covid years. The next 3 years as we grew back together in community, meeting and serving together have been so full and rewarding.
I look forward with you all, God willing, to all that He would want to bless us with and guide us into over the next 3 years with a sense of faith, trust and hope as we play our part in making God’s world a better more hopeful place.
I’ll leave you to enjoy what remains of the summer and maybe go and listen to Michael Jackson’s ‘Heal the World’ song!
Every Blessing
Rev Charles Burton
Published in the September 2025 edition of the Parish magazines.
You can order Parish magazines, which contain additional articles, by visiting All Saints or Christ Church
Main image by courtesy of Unsplash