01 Oct September 2025 Digest

Welcome back to Mucknell Abbey for another look at what we’ve been up to over the past month. There’s been plenty going on, as ever, in this season of “mists and mellow fruitfulness”, not least continuing to gather in our harvest, of which more below. We’ve been enjoying some sunny days, and also been glad of a bit more rain to help the garden and grounds along. Read on to see what’s been going on!

The Ordination of Deacons

On Sunday 28th, it was a great joy for us all to join with Br. Michaël and two other candidates, Robert and Sue, as they were ordained as deacons in Worcester Cathedral. All have trained on the Auxiliary Pathway in the Diocese of Worcester. The cathedral was well filled as friends and family of all three candidates gathered to mark the occasion, which offered a lovely blend of celebration and solemnity. We’re very grateful to the Diocese of Worcester for permission to use some of their wonderful photos – click through to their Facebook page to see the full gallery: direct link to gallery // C of E Worcester Facebook And please do continue to pray for Br. Michaël as he finds his way into this new ministry, and also continues with his training.

It was lovely too to have various friends of the Community with us, particularly Bishop Anne, our Bishop-Visitor and an Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Worcester. Thank you to Russell for this group photo:

And lastly for this section, a photo of Br. Michaël on the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, September 29th, and his first time deaconing for a Eucharist here at the Abbey:

Building a Roundhouse

You may recall that some months ago we lauched our Roundhouse Project fundraiser; thanks to the overwhelming generosity of so many people, we covered the full costs of the Roundhouse, which was installed/built this month! The gallery below shows the build process, and the image at the top of this page is the view from the front door of the Roundhouse.

Bringing in the harvest

Work has continued in the kitchen garden as we harvest and clear the vegetable beds, with a great deal of help from friends and guests. We harvested most of our squash this month, including some truly enormous ones that we’ve nicknamed pink torpedoes. To give you an idea, I used the smallest of the pink squash in the photo below to make pumpkin bake with for supper, and it easily fed over a dozen people. Some of our produce is stored in our aptly name Fruit and Veg Store, such as squash, apples, potatoes and onions. Others, if not eaten fresh, are processed for the freezer, and used either for meals or for jam making. We had a particularly abundant marrow harvest this year (marrows being courgettes that got away from us), and I’ve already turned some of it into marrow and ginger jam. Since this involves first chopping the marrow into tiny pieces, I was very grateful for the help of a couple of our guests who turned chopping the marrows into their own personal mission!

Here’s a few pictures of the squash and marrow harvest:

Novice Conference

Michael, our Alongsider, spent 5 days at Tymawr with his fellow alongsiders/postulants/novices from the Anglican communities, looking at relationships in communities. They were led by Dr. Petà Dunstan and Jane Tillier. The smiles in the group photo say a lot about how enjoyable the week was for all:

Rocky’s Ramblings

Rocky has been his usual somewhat elusive self this past month; he’s taken to setting up camp at the bottom of the stairs in the evening, to wait for Br. Philip to come downstairs and give him his supper. On one evening, clearly feeling that Philip was running late, he took to wandering into our sitting room every 3 minutes or so to inform us plaintively that his supper was being unreasonsably delayed. When Philip appeared, he bought Rocky into the sitting room to say a proper goodnight; you can probably tell from Rocky’s face just what he thought of this:

And finally…

At Br. Michaël’s ordination service, we were reminded of the importance of service, not just for those being made deacon, but as a part of our common Christian vocation. The call to love one another as Christ has loved us is profoundly one of service; this is what St. Benedict too calls us to. At the beginning of his Rule, he invites us to “listen with the ear of our hearts” and in chapter 72, the penultimate chapter of the Rule, he calls us to “earnestly compete in obedience to one another” and to “show the pure love of sisters or brothers”. This will be worked out differently in every individual life, but whatever we may do day to day, I pray that we may look for and use opportunities to bring something of God’s love to those around us.