As bright summer sun turns to golden autumnal glow, the Church gets ready to celebrate the abundance of all that God grows. Harvest is traditionally a time of thanksgiving for crops safely gathered in, and Harvest Festival (which we will celebrate here at St Mary’s on 8th October at the 10.30am Eucharist) typically conjures up images of proud pumpkins on display and tins of soup for those who are hungry. But it is not only produce from the veg patch and farm which has been growing; the hedgerows are teeming with life and, if we take the time to stop and look more closely, we see that birds, bees, butterflies and bugs have been just as busy as those who are producing and harvesting the food for our tables.

Harvest is the perfect time to take a moment to marvel at God’s creation and think and pray about ways in which we can help nurture nature in our local environment. Dozens of volunteers of all ages have worked incredibly hard to make our own Holywell Cemetery a vibrant and thriving sanctuary for wildlife, and a place where many varieties of plants can flourish too. It is an oasis in a busy city and we would love to explore its wonderful biodiversity more together. Children have a special advantage in exploring nature as their innate inquisitiveness and unique perspective on the world, usually viewed from much closer to ground level than adults and undistracted by everyday grown-up concerns, means that they bring unique insights, wonder and appreciation to the task of discovering God’s world in detail. And that’s exactly what we plan to do on our Harvest in Holywell Mini Nature Hunt this October half-term.

Children of all ages and their adults are warmly invited to join us as we gather at The University Church on Tuesday 24 October at 2pm and Emma Wormersley-Sharp leads us on a short walk (circa 0.5 mile) to Holywell Cemetery to explore its natural treasures together. The route to Holywell is suitable for buggies but some terrain inside the cemetery is uneven so is best explored on foot. Please dress for the weather in clothes which you don’t mind getting grubby. If the weather is too wet to walk, we will stay in church for some nature-based fun. Places are limited so, to ensure there are plenty of mini nature hunt resources for everyone, do sign up on the website ahead of time to let us know if you plan to come.