Bishop Mark Lawrence–Life’s Fallow Seasons

For most of us Ember Days go unno­ticed. With the excep­tion of sem­i­nar­i­ans writ­ing let­ters to bish­ops telling them of their progress, Ember Days have all but dis­ap­peared in the life of the Church. Even in farm­ing com­mu­ni­ties liv­ing closer to the earth and to the cycles of seed-time, vin­tage and har­vest there is pre­cious lit­tle atten­tion given to Ember days. Such is our loss; for knowl­edge of the sea­sons has much to teach us and not just for lessons about the soil. Last week on Sep­tem­ber 18th, 20th, and 21st the Church’s cal­en­dar rubrics noted what used to be the “vin­tage” Ember days””that is the sea­son of the grape har­vest. As a native Cal­i­forn­ian I remem­ber it well””the grape har­vest that is not the Ember days.

What brought this to mind was our lat­est dioce­san Clergy Day. Not that we in the Dio­cese of South Car­olina are in what I would call a “vin­tage season”””though cer­tainly some may feel this past year they have been like grapes in the wine press trod­dened and squeezed. No, as I looked out on the assem­bled broth­ers and sis­ters, rather than see­ing brethren in the vin­tage month, what came to mind was that more than a few had passed through or per­haps were still in a fal­low season.

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