October 2022

"October’s poplars are flaming torches lighting the way to winter."
– Nova Bair

October asserts, without question, that the year is fading. The warm afternoons and golden sunlight of September can trick us into thinking that summer might just stick around. But as the sun starts going down before 7pm (a full month prior to the end of Daylight Savings) and the air takes on an unmistakable crispness, it has become clear that autumn has well and truly arrived.

October is a busy time in the life of the church. We begin the month with the World Communion Sunday and the annual Blessing of Animals on Sunday, 10/2. We close the month with Reformation Sunday on 10/30. In between, our Youth Class will once again participate in the Freehold Area CROP Walk, and our congregation will meet for our Quarterly Business Meeting on 10/16. ABW resumes their activities this month, and the Bible Study and choir continue. We have well and truly entered our program year.

The flaming foliage of this month brightens the darkening days, not only lighting the way to winter, but to all that the future holds. Soon enough we will gather to give thanks; soon we will begin lighting Advent candles. Let us pause in this season – of transition and transformation; of endings and beginnings – and see where God is speaking to us.

– Pastor Jon