Dear One and All,

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and

more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, and

summer’s lease hath all too short a date.” –William Shakespeare

As I write this letter for the summer season I have Vivaldi’s four seasons playing in the background and a little piece of Shakespeare to enrich the piece. Spring, summer and autumn are fine and splendid for me, but the depths of winter and the fading light settle upon me like a cold chill. It’s bleak.

Summer! Pentecost is a few days away and into the light of meteorological summer the Holy Spirit comes to enflame our hearts with God’s gift of continuing presence; of life and hope; of comfort and joy. The Spirit prompts us to be filled with such good gifts, a time for fruitfulness. Pentecost and summer, the season of plenty, the season of abundance, the time for light and long, stretched-out summer days.

Summer, the season when ‘the darling buds of May’ ripen and satisfy; the promise of one season delivers into the next. Having two churches, one at Temple in Budleigh Salterton and the other at the Mint in Exeter, the summer season brings on a new lease. The city fills with tourists and the seaside town fills with summer visitors endlessly seeking the best spaces in the cafes and restaurants. Spring gives way to summer pleasure, a time for vacations, a time to rest and enjoy.

Seasons are so important, it is where we find our common ground, whether it’s simply the weather or defined by liturgical context. Seasons also speak to our lives; the flush of spring and the pleasure of summer; the depth of autumn and the message of winter. Nothing is lost to us as we interpret seasons as facets of our lives and seasons as liturgical guides. Our lives mirror the seasons and our claim to ‘the summer lease hath all too short a date’.

Whatever you are doing this summer I do hope you will find time to pause, to rest and to enjoy the gift of the season. The Celtic Christians offer a blessing for the summer season which I leave with you:

Good is the season of peaceful summer;

The council of the trees gather together, a band unshaken by the whistling wind,

A green gathering in the sheltered woods;

Eddies swirl the stream,

Good is the warm turf under us.

Every blessing for Pentecost and for this summer-tide.

Simon