Letter from the Rector

Dear friends,

A friend of mine sent a photo of a cup of coffee he had bought.  As is the way with many modern-day baristas, his had created an image in the milky surface froth.  It was the outline of a Halloween pumpkin.  This was in early September.

There was a time, not so long ago, when people would start looking towards Christmas as soon as the summer holidays were over.  Hamley’s would stock their Yuletide toys in August.  Now it seems that Halloween has taken the mantle of the festival to be anticipated in late summer.  Visiting East Grinstead’s Standen House recently, I noticed in the beautifully kept kitchen garden that the many pumpkins had been inscribed with the words ‘spooky’ so that as they grew their spookiness would expand and they would all be ready for the end of October sale to punters keen to celebrate all things gothic and sinister.

You might expect a parish priest to disapprove of this growing commercial focus on the morbid and the macabre, and of course many Christians do.  Shouldn’t we celebrate light rather than darkness?  But, while it is lamentable that Britain has followed America’s lead in turning All Hallows Eve into a huge money-making, plastic waste-creating, consumer-fest, there might be something to be said for engaging with Halloween, not only because our children and grandchildren are going to anyway, but also because there’s a possibility that it points to a need in many people for enchantment and transcendence.  Many argue that the roots of Halloween lie in the pagan celebration of summer’s end known as Samhain and suggest that a rediscovery of those roots can renew our appreciation of the beauty and sacredness of nature.  Such a view would not be incompatible with the Christian faith.

Hard-headed secularists try to tell us that there is nothing more to us than mere matter.  Questions of soul and spirit, God and eternity, are regarded by them as out of bounds and not worth considering.  This is, of course, based on prejudice rather than evidence.  It is not a view which can withstand scrutiny.  Of course, most people aren’t interested in the finer points of philosophical debate, but many have a sense that there is more to life than what we can see and touch.  Time was when religious feasts and festivals provided the opportunity to express this sense in ways that were enjoyable, and community based.  We’ve lost a lot of that sensibility in our society, but the awareness of it and the need to express it remains.

With my prayers and best wishes,

Rev. Canon Trevor Mapstone
Rector, St Mary’s Caterham