Listen now

Paper versions are available if you’re able to get to church!

We have write-ups from our various groups and huge amount of upcoming activities to tell you about. So, please have a read.

There’s also this seasonal letter from our Vicar Dave Thompson…

Harvest

This month we celebrate Harvest. This is always a significant event in the life of our church and community. Both our church school and Springside School will hold services in church to mark this event and goods will be distributed to those in need within the locality.

The celebration of Harvest has its roots in the Jewish celebration of “Sukkot” also known as the Feast of the Tabernacles. Sukkot commemorates the forty-year period during which the children of Israel were wandering through the desert, living in temporary shelters – as God brought them out of the land of Egypt.  

In contemporary Judaism, Sukkot is a week-long celebration of God’s care and protection. This year it begins on Sunday 13 October which coincidentally is also the day we hold our Harvest Festivals.

Lammas

The original Christian observance of a harvest type thanksgiving was kept in the early days of August when the first of the corn harvest was made into bread for the Eucharist. This was known as loaf mass or lammas.        

In 1863, the Revd. Robert Hawker – Vicar of Morwenstow in Cornwall – revisited the Lammas custom on the first Sunday in October. From that small incident, Christian historians regard that as the forerunner of our modern Harvest Festivals.

Today Harvest is observed throughout the nation as a form of thanksgiving for God’s goodness and the produce of the earth. The Harvest collect mentions that the season should be used for:

1. The glory of God
2. The relief of those in need
3. Our own well-being.

As the chorus to the hymn “We plough the fields and scatter” says:

“All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above,

So thank the Lord, O thank the Lord for all His love”

May God bless us as we celebrate His goodness and share His gifts with others.   

With best wishes, Dave

[For more on Harvest please see this post from last year. For our November magazine, please press here.]