Alongside being the vicar, I work three-days-a-week training non-ordained people in church ministry in Devon (with SWMTC, South West Ministry Training Course). During interviews in June for a training course in the autumn, I asked each applicant how the course would fit in with their lives. One candidate’s reply was, ‘I couldn’t have done it if it had been over the summer. But starting in September works well.’ He went on to explain that he works in farming.
This brought home afresh to me that the yearly cycle used by our schools and places of higher learning was historically designed exactly for this purpose: so that those who were needed in the fields for the busy harvest could still go to school.
‘September’ – the word still rings with the return to school, whatever our age. It resonates with endings – the long carefree days of holidays, intrepid outdoor exploits, the summer itself. And with beginnings – a new class, new teacher, new classroom and strange new subjects on the timetable, clutching a fresh exercise book and a shiny new ruler, feeling awkward in a stiff new uniform. 
Our local schools now return to their classrooms. A new cycle of learning begins, seeds of knowledge are sown, to be harvested in summer exams. But what of us adults? Does the learning stop?
Autumn heralds our Harvest festivals – a chance to stop and allow thankfulness to blossom in us. Followed soon by Remembrance, particularly poignant this centenary year – learning from history and the sacrifice of others. Then in Advent the church’s year begins again, steering us through the winter darkness via Christmas to the climax in Easter resurrection and beyond to Pentecost.
As parents or grandparents it is always a delight when our child returns home from school excitedly brandishing some work they have produced, or bursting to tell of what they have learned. ‘Unless you become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven,’ said Jesus. God loves us to come to Him excitedly exclaiming, ‘Look what I’ve learned!’ And He sits beside us with joy and pride, as we tell Him what new things we’ve discovered about the world, about people, about ourselves – about Him.
A new school year begins. What can we look forward to learning this year?
Rev David Carrington
Team Vicar of Escot, Feniton and Payhembury
The Rectory, Station Road, Feniton 01404 850905
