HARVEST FESTIVAL...

...but not as some of us remember it!  

For many of us who have been Christians for a long time and remember Sunday School and Church in the 1950s and 60s, and perhaps even into the 70s and 80s, the Harvest Festival services many of us attend today are nothing like the ones we used to have.  

I’m sure many of you can remember the fruit and vegetables, many from our father’s or grandfather's allotment, piled up at the front of the church with two very large loaves baked in the shape of sheaves of corn standing at the side of all this wonderful produce and I remember there was always a little mouse at the bottom of the sheaf!  

The window sills at either side of the Church were adorned with shoeboxes or baskets filled with more fruit and vegetables and there were always lots of flowers too.  The smell was almost intoxicating and how lovely it was to be able to taste the huge sheaves of bread at a harvest supper later in the week!

Today, however, and for many years, Harvest Festivals in many Churches have been about helping others in different parts of the world to produce more and help them be more self-sufficient.

Today in our Church we heard from someone who came to us from Tear Fund and told us about how local Churches, including our own, helped so many people.  She said that Gorse Hill Baptist Church had been supporting Tear Fund for over 30 years and in that time had donated the huge sum of £73,000, which is amazing.

Our Harvest Project this year is for Operation Agri, a development charity, that helps some of the world’s most disadvantaged people improve their lives.   A variety of overseas projects is supported – agriculture, water, women’s empowerment, skills training, and basic health clinics.  Our current appeal is “Securing Livelihoods in Sri Lanka”. Women who were struggling to feed their children, are learning to grow organic crops and keep livestock, which gives them a secure income.  They are also helped with irrigation, to cope when climate change disrupts the rain for crops.  

We are encouraged to give a donation rather than bringing fruit, vegetables and other produce to the Church, but in fact, there are some who do bring their excess produce and give it to the Community Fridge, which is great, so we have the best of both worlds - donations to help those in Sri Lanka and help for those in our community who are not able to produce their own vegetables etc.

There was still a good display in Church, which is my photograph today, with a beautiful banner.  I looked up the context of the words on the banner and it says in Psalm 104 verses 24 and 27-28:

How many are your works, Lord!
     In wisdom you made them all;
          The earth is full of your creatures...
All creatures look to you
     to give them their food at the proper time.
When you give it to them,
     they gather it up;
          when you open your hand,
               they are satisfied with good things.

How blessed we all are to be able to go to a supermarket and buy just what we need or even to grow fruit and vegetables in our gardens.  We were happy to give a donation to help people, particularly women, in Sri Lanka and pray that our donation, together with the donations of many others in our Church will be a blessing to those women for many years to come.

PS Added at 7.45 pm Something else I miss is singing the old “Harvest” hymns - sadly we didn’t have one today - no “We plough the fields and scatter the good seed on the land” or indeed “Come ye thankful people come”  - such a shame but a sign of the times, I guess!