Change of season

Huw Williams | 15:06, 16 September, 2012 | Turin, Italy

"On Wednesday, Autumn starts…" someone said around the lunch table last Sunday, with glum foreboding. And she was right. Yesterday we took a walk with Kitty and the winds were blowing the leaves from every tree to swirl around our feet and pram wheels. Kitty snuggled under her blanket with smug satisfaction, and with what I could have sworn was a look of "told you so" at Mum and Dad who were just a little bit chilly in their T-shirts.

Today things seem more Summery again, but the temperatures are lower (although still very pleasant) and there is certainly a feeling that a threshold has been crossed, and that Summer is now taking its reluctant leave. The morning shadows are longer and the Torinese are reaching for their scarves.

Good friends have taken their leave from ICT over the last couple of weeks as they move to pastures new with work. It's one of the peculiarities of life in our church here, we have a highly transient congregation, with many people simply passing through Torino for a year or two – just enough time to settle in – and then off again. But at the same time, we have been excited to see plenty of new faces in our church over the last two Sundays and that's certainly one of the joys of the job. You simply never know who might turn up next week.

Change is inevitable, as much in the church as in the seasons. For me, as someone who doesn't embrace change as naturally or as enthusiastically as some, it's not easy. But it can be exciting, too.