Uniting Church in Australia
Northern Synod

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, 

Today was hot in Darwin.  I have been aware for a month or so that the weather was changing.  The cool Dry Season is gone and in its place are balmy nights and warm days with slowly climbing humidity; not yet ‘build-up’ but heading in that direction.  Yesterday some huge towers of fluffy clouds built throughout the day and today is just plain HOT!

The change of seasons is again upon us.

I am feeling a bit reflective these past few weeks, having recently visited my dear Dad in Adelaide.  He is 94 years old and in a different season of his life now, than he was even 10 years ago.  It seems to me that life has a flow, like the seasons which have a flow.  Each season brings a change of weather.  The trees and flowers mark seasonal changes.  The right fruit for that season appears on the trees and tells us which birds, land animals and sea life are around.  Even the sunsets look different from one season to the next.  We see it and we feel it.  I think our lives are a bit like that too.  There are seasons in our lives.  Have you noticed that?

In my role as Moderator, I have been able to move around (since travel restrictions have been lifted) and this means that I have experienced different seasons in different places around Australia as well.  Winter in the APY Lands and Alice Springs was a cold shock especially camping under the stars in swags at Kalka.  The cold, dry desert air at night and the cloudless skies made the stars pierce the blackness and sparkle with joy.  In a week I will visit Broome and Mowanjum and I expect it will be warm and humid there.