Prelude Chanson de Matin by Edward Elgar
Opening Words by Verona Conway
Our worship is to the holy spirit of the universe
who sustains it in love and makes it ever new
each moment of time.
Our prayer is for light to see the way,
truth to teach us how to walk,
faith to give us the courage to keep on
through all discouragements.
Our friendship is with each other,
as fellow seekers after true happiness,
fellow workers in the service of the spirit.
May our worship, our prayer, our friendship,
be fully blessed in this hour.
Chalice Lighting (you may wish to light a candle in your own home at this point). Words by Cliff Reed
As leaves flame yellow, red and gold,
then fall,
and flames and sweet aromas
rise from autumn bonfires,
so too we kindle our chalice-flame
in thanks for the season’s beauty
and the love that makes us one.
Opening Prayer
Spirit of Life and Love,
be with us as we gather for worship,
each in our own place.
Help us to feel a sense of community,
even though we are physically apart.
Help us to care for each other,
in this world in which Covid has not yet gone away,
and the clouds of war and climate change overshadow us.
May we keep in touch however we can,
and help each other, however we may.
May we be grateful for the freedoms we have
and respect the wishes of others.
May we hold in our hearts all those
who are grieving, lost, alone,
suffering in any way,
Amen
Reading from Michaelmas on Wikipedia
In the fifth century, a basilica near Rome was dedicated in honour of Saint Michael the Archangel on 30 September, beginning with celebrations on the eve of that day. 29 September is now kept in honour of Saint Michael and all Angels throughout some western churches. The name Michaelmas comes from a shortening of “Michael’s Mass”, in the same style as Christmas (Christ’s Mass) and Candlemas (Candle Mass, the Mass where traditionally the candles to be used throughout the year would be blessed).
During the Middle Ages, Michaelmas was celebrated as a Holy Day of Obligation, but this tradition was abolished in the 18th century. In medieval England, Michaelmas marked the ending and beginning of the husbandman‘s year, George C. Homans observes: “at that time harvest was over, and the bailiff or reeve of the manor would be making out the accounts for the year.”
Because it falls near the equinox, this holy day is associated in the northern hemisphere with the beginning of autumn and the shortening of days. It was also one of the English, Welsh, and Irish quarter days, when accounts had to be settled. On manors, it was the day when a reeve was elected from the peasants. Michaelmas hiring fairs were held at the end of September or beginning of October. The day was also considered a “gale day” in Ireland when rent would be due, as well as a day for the issuing or settling of contracts or other legal transactions.
Alternative Lord’s Prayer
Spirit of Life and Love, here and everywhere,
May we be aware of your presence in our lives.
May our world be blessed.
May our daily needs be met,
And may our shortcomings be forgiven,
As we forgive those of others.
Give us the strength to resist wrong-doing,
The inspiration and guidance to do right,
And the wisdom to know the difference.
We are your hands in the world; help us to grow.
May we have compassion for all living beings,
And receive whatever life brings,
With courage and trust.
Amen
Reading Michaelmas from historic-uk.com website
Michaelmas, or the Feast of Michael and All Angels, is celebrated on the 29th of September every year. As it falls near the equinox, the day is associated with the beginning of autumn and the shortening of days; in England, it is one of the “quarter days”.
There are traditionally four “quarter days” in a year (Lady Day (25th March), Midsummer (24th June), Michaelmas (29th September) and Christmas (25th December). They are spaced three months apart, on religious festivals, usually close to the solstices or equinoxes. They were the four dates on which servants were hired, rents due or leases begun. It used to be said that harvest had to be completed by Michaelmas, almost like the marking of the end of the productive season and the beginning of the new cycle of farming. It was the time at which new servants were hired or land was exchanged and debts were paid. This is how it came to be for Michaelmas to be the time for electing magistrates and also the beginning of legal and university terms.
St Michael is one of the principal angelic warriors, protector against the dark of the night and the Archangel who fought against Satan and his evil angels. As Michaelmas is the time that the darker nights and colder days begin – the edge into winter – the celebration of Michaelmas is associated with encouraging protection during these dark months. It was believed that negative forces were stronger in darkness and so families would require stronger defences during the later months of the year.
Traditionally, in the British Isles, a well fattened goose, fed on the stubble from the fields after the harvest, is eaten to protect against financial need in the family for the next year; as the saying goes: “Eat a goose on Michaelmas Day,
Want not for money all the year”.
Prayer for Late Autumn by Vernon Marshall
Builder of seasons, Mother of Nature,
The days shorten, the skies darken,
And we feel the ache of the gloom of autumn.
The months before us seem like a desert
In which we cannot discern an oasis.
We yearn for that renewal which comes with the spring,
With the strength of the sun, the growth of the buds.
But all around us is a beauty we often fail to see.
Let not our souls be filled with gloom
When you have provided seasonal gifts.
The trees, though leafless, are not lifeless,
The plants, though not vernal, are yet vital.
There is an energy and a power
Bubbling within the fabric of our earth.
Let our souls tap that force.
Let us become attuned to the vigour that is life.
Let us see your benevolent face in the greying aspect of autumn.
Embrace us with your warmth,
Calm us with your peace, enthuse us with your love of our world,
And breathe into us the breath of God,
By which we live.
Amen
Reading Autumn life by Malcolm Sadler, from With Heart and Mind
I love autumn – the slow turning of the leaves on the trees, the rich hues all around, the birds migrating. It is such an evocative time, but it is also a rather sad time – a prelude to winter with its cold and bleakness, the necessary running-down of nature’s resources. And yet it is as inevitable as the progress of life itself; our little lives are but a reflection of nature’s pattern, but writ somewhat slower.
I well remember the year I reached my 60th birthday… In the ensuing weeks and months – and even years – it has gradually dawned on me that I am a pensioner, one of the greying band of older folk who, we are told, are growing in numbers so rapidly that in the future the younger generation will find it impossible to cater for us properly. Now that I have passed 70 the feeling that I am well into the autumn of my days gets stronger day by day….
But it is no use being too gloomy and dwelling on the dark side of things; like the animals, one must make preparations for the coming winters as best one can and hope that our circle of friends will gather round to give any necessary support. This is where a religious community such as ours comes into its own, for we each know one another and are ready to give support and love, and that, surely, is what we are put on this earth for – to give friendship and support and, most importantly, love to one another as we pass through this life.
Time of Stillness and Reflection words by Malcolm Sadler (adapted)
Sixty – seventy – milestones on life’s journey,
the autumn of one’s years.
Friends and acquaintances fall by the wayside,
leaving unfillable gaps.
Living on borrowed time – if the Bible is to be believed.
Inevitability – the march of the seasons.
Shakespeare’s ‘slippered pantaloons’ seem all too real
‘sans teeth, sans everything’
seems just around the corner
as years take their inevitable toll.
One dreads them having any effect on the mind.
But it is not too late!
there is more time for other people,
there is still time for love,
much more love – hugs of real pleasure.
[silence]
Don’t delay – now is the time
to change someone’s life for the better.
Love is what life is about.
At the end, one can genuinely say:
‘My living has not been in vain.’
May it be so, for us all, Amen
Musical Interlude: Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy
Address Michaelmas
When I chose Michaelmas as the theme for this week’s service (as the Christian festival falls on 29th September), I thought it would be a service about the Archangel Michael. But the more I looked into it, the more I realised its significance as one of the important markers of the year in the United Kingdom, both in the past, when it was considered the end of the agricultural cycle, and still now, when Michaelmas is one of the four quarter days of the financial, judicial, and academic year. I remember arriving at Harris Manchester College in Oxford to begin my ministry training, to discover that it was not the Autumn term, but the Michaelmas one (the other two being Hilary and Trinity). Fascinating that this tradition has lasted into the 21st century. And when I was a student at City of Birmingham Polytechnic, back in the late seventies, the Students’ Union used to run an annual trip to Nottingham Goose Fair. I had no idea then, that it was related to the Christian festival of Michaelmas.
As I’ve said before, the beginning of Autumn may be seen as a marker of the end of one year and the beginning of the next. In the Pagan tradition, the festival of Mabon, the Autumn Equinox, marks the beginning of the “dark half” of the year, during which the natural world, and its people, creatures and plants, enter a time of dormancy, husbanding their strength for the Spring to come.
Yet as Malcolm Sadler points out in our final reading, the Autumn of one’s life need not be a time of decline. When we retire from paid work, oceans of time open up for more congenial activities, which may bear their own fruit: new hobbies, perhaps, and certainly more time to socialise with friends, and to be a good friend to others.
In Western society, the habit of reverence for the wisdom of our elders has declined (and I guess it may be argued in some cases, some of our elders are far from wise!). Yet I believe it is not possible to live sixty or seventy years on the earth, with all the experiences and connections which that brings, without learning something. And it is our duty as elders (which probably most of you listening to this qualify as) to ensure that our hard-won wisdom does not go to waste, that we pass it down the generations, in the hope that those coming along behind us will not make the same mistakes we have.
We can even be angels (of a kind) to others. Not perhaps like St Michael, striding around the world with his fiery sword. Nevertheless, I do believe angels exist on the earth. The English word ‘angel’ comes from the Greek ‘angelos’, which in its turn is a translation of the word ‘malakh’ in the Hebrew Bible, which means ‘messenger of God’. A similar word ‘malaikah’ is used in the Qur’an. The angels of the Christian Church are portrayed as spiritual beings higher than humans, but lower than God. In the first centuries of the Church, beliefs about angels evolved, until there were various different ranks, such as the principalities and powers mentioned in Paul’s Letter to the Romans, with their own missions and activities. Guardian angels, so Catholics believe, come from the lowest rank, and their job is to give their assigned human beings guidance throughout their lives, and to protect them from evil influences, and encourage them to do good. Wise elders.
The concept of the guardian angel has survived quite strongly in Western popular culture. I am sure that we can all visualize cartoon representations of a character with an angel sitting on one shoulder, trying to give them good advice, and a devil on the other, tempting them to do the wrong thing. And I am equally sure that many of us have watched that hoary Christmas favourite, It’s A Wonderful Life, in which a man’s guardian angel rescues him from despair by showing him how the choices he has made throughout his life, the random acts of kindness, have made a beneficial difference to many people.
I love the words of Frederick Buechner explaining that how we act towards strangers can have a real knock-on effect. He writes, “As we move around this world and as we act with kindness, perhaps, or with indifference or with hostility towards the people we meet, we are setting the great spider web atremble. The life I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops, or in what far place my touch will be felt.” So we can be angels too.
I would imagine that most Unitarians do not believe in angels as supernatural beings, certainly not with the traditional wings and white nightshirt so beloved of Christmas card artists. But I do believe, as I said earlier, in the possibility of ordinary people being messengers of the Divine, whose words or actions give us a nudge in the right direction at a crucial moment. This has certainly happened to me. I believe with Rev. Lindy Latham, former minister of our Bristol congregations, that people can be angels, messengers of God, to each other, by giving good advice, or through small acts of kindness. Each one of us has the potential to be an angel to somebody else, by being a beneficent presence in their lives, enabling them to move beyond their limitations and grow.
We may all have entertained angels unawares. This idea of ordinary people being angels is shared by many Jews. In his book A Backdoor to Heaven, Rabbi Lionel Blue calls them “the mal’achim, the angeloi, the messengers one encountered in one’s life who were sent by God.” And he explains, “An angel can be the first person you fall in love with, who lets you down gently and lightly and helps you go forward into the risks of light and love. You can hear one in a bus queue whose name you will never know, but who says something which answers some inner questions, some need which is barely understood. It can be that intimate and strange figure, one’s guardian angel. The analyst who came to my aid at a party was a messenger to me of deep significance. So was a charwoman, so was a Carmelite nun I only saw behind a grille.… Understanding one’s own, defending one’s own and loving one’s own are natural. Through a few creatures, human or animal, we are redeemed from our limitations and learn to meet what is strange and unfamiliar, and this is not quite natural – it is a little more, therefore it is supernatural.”
He freely admits that this conception of angels has a certain mythic quality, but argues that, “The acceptance of them has meant that the incidents of my life are not accidents for me; they are clues to a meaning I sometimes grasp but cannot keep.” This is something I have come to experience in my own life, which is why I am open to the idea of angels.
But I’m not saying that we should consciously try to be angels to other people – that would be pretentious and arrogant and would not work. What I am saying, I guess, is that we should be alert in our own lives, so that we can recognise an angelic intervention when it happens, and be receptive to the advice or kindness received.
Of course, some of you may think that the idea of an external agency having influence on the morals of individuals is ridiculous. For you, your “angel” may be the voice of your own conscience; the ‘still, small voice’ within that prompts you to take one action rather than another, because that is the ‘right’ thing to do. Alfred Hall, author of Beliefs of A Unitarian, described it thus:
“We do not know what absolute good is; we only know right because we are conscious of wrong, and evil because conscious of good. We cannot become aware of evil until we are alive to virtue. Those who affirm that conscience is the voice of God mean that whenever, for example, love and hate are seen in conflict, it is within the knowledge of everyone that love is the higher.”
Sixty or so years on from these words being written, I think that life is somewhat more complicated than that – would it were that simple! Cliff Reed gives us one answer in his book Unitarian? What’s that?, “Unitarians are suspicious of any morality that is too rigid in its decisions or which is lacking in mercy. Such ‘morality’ often comes with a religious label attached. But a liberal religious Unitarian morality offers another model: one that imposes the highest standards on oneself, while treating others with justice and compassion.”
This of course is what the Golden Rule is all about. In order to be the best people that we can be, we need to be called back to a deeper practice of compassion.
To conclude, I believe in two kinds of angels, or messengers of the Divine: those people who give us some wise advice that points us in the right direction in a time of testing, and those who small acts of kindness to others make the world a better place to live in. Happy Michaelmas!
Closing Words
Spirit of Life and Love,
Our time together is drawing to a close.
May we use our years, our hard-won wisdom,
wisely, accepting nudges from the angels
in our lives, and being as kind as we can to others.
May we share the love we feel,
may we look out for each other,
sharing our joys and our sorrows,
and may we keep up our hearts,
being grateful for the many blessings in our lives,
now and in the days to come, Amen
Postlude Romance No. 1 by John Brunning