From the associate minister...
Dear friends
September marks the start of the new academic year and for those working in education or still in education it brings bigger changes than 1 January ever does. The new school year reminds me of different feelings. I still feel the excitement of using a new pen, opening a fresh notebook or filling a new pencil case but I can also remember feeling a sense of anxiety about going back to school and worrying about whether I had forgotten how to teach over the summer holidays.
Unlike the Western, Gregorian, calendar which starts new year on 1 January, Jewish new year is more in line with the academic year. For Jewish people, Rosh Hashanah, Jewish new year, is always celebrated in the autumn. This year it falls on 22 September, just a few weeks after schools return. The festival includes prayers, candle-lighting and eating sweet foods, particularly apples dipped in honey as a visual and tasty way to express blessings and prayers for a good, sweet new year.
Of course, we don’t need to wait for the start of a new year to pray for God’s blessings. The writer of Lamentations remembered that even in the middle of his suffering he could have hope because God was faithful and his mercies were new every morning, Lamentations 3:21–24 (ESV)
But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
22 The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24 “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”
So as the new academic year starts we remember God’s faithfulness and mercy and pray that our children, young people, teachers, pre-school, children’s and youth work and everyone involved in education may enjoy God’s blessings and prayers for a good, sweet new year.
Blessings Kathryn