19th September 2026
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life. Proverbs 11:30a
Sovereign God, you are the source of all good things:
We praise you.
You call us to tend and care for your creation:
May we strive to do your will.
You have made us as brothers and sisters with all that lives:
May we live together in peace
A reading: As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease. Genesis 8:22
An acorn is a comical thing
with a little hat that could be a cup.
Its pointed tip – that could be its bottom –
is not going to drill its way into the earth.
It waits for the rook or the squirrel
to snaffle it and bury it deep in the soil,
where after hours of dark contemplation
it will emerge as a slip of a thing,
with rusty red leaves that unfold into green.
An oak’s life starts in a very small way.
Lord God, in small and even comical ways,
let our faith grow.
From small beginnings help us sow
seeds that will transform your world.
A reading: I will put in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive; I will set in the desert the cypress, the plane and the pine together, so that all may see and know, all may consider and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it. Isaiah 41:19-20
Rooted together in community,
colonising land that might otherwise be void,
trees are not loners.
Companions, they support each other,
as neighbours they support others,
forming delicate ecosystems
where life is in the balance.
Lord God, let our faith
create neighbours and communities.
Rooted in togetherness,
may your kingdom come.
A Reading: He said, “Out of the eater came something to eat; Out of the strong came something sweet.” Three days later they had still not figured out what the riddle meant. Judges 14:14
Ancient oak,
wrinkled and gnarled,
gnawed at by time,
even in death you provide safe lodging
and sustenance for others.
With grace you return to the earth
the nourishment you harvested:
a life time of receiving and giving.
Lord God, let our faith
nourish generations to come
just as we gain from those who have gone before.
May the power of the resurrection
sustain us with eternal life.
Amen.
The Grace
