Patrick Comerford
Autumn has definitely turned to winter in Dublin. The mornings are cold and the evenings are dark so soon. There are heaving banks of yellow, golden, amber and brown leaves rustling beneath the trees along the banks of the Dodder and on the slopes beneath Rathfarnham village each morning as I head into work.
Soon all the leaves will have fallen. But this has been the most beautiful autumn in Ireland in my memory, and still some autumn leaves seem to be lingering as they cling on to trees here and there.
This afternoon, two us went south into the northern rims of Co Wicklow, at the Gateway to the Garden of Ireland on the edges of the Wicklow Mountains, and had a late lunch in the Avoca centre in Kilmacanogue, between Bray and Enniskerry.
We ate in the pavilion behind the Sugar Tree Café and shop. The afternoon lights seemed to linger, and we noticed the difference the evergreen trees there make to the scene framed by the full-length windows, compared to the autumn sylvan scene at the front that are turning to winter.
This evening, I plan to attend the institution of the Revd Norman McCausland as the new Rector of Raheny and Coolock. Norman was one of the staff members of the Church of Ireland Theological College who interviewed me at the selection conference almost 15 years ago in 1999, a year before my ordination.
Tomorrow, I plan to be in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, for the consecration of Pat Storey as the new Bishop of Meath and Kildare, the first woman to become a bishop in the Church of Ireland. On Sunday morning, I am preaching in the cathedral on the First Sunday of Advent.
As the last golden leaves fall to the ground gracefully, and as autumn gives way to winter, it is good to celebrate new beginnings and fresh starts and to look forward to new springs in the life of the Church.
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