Harvest

We celebrated Harvest tonight at Old Kea, our little church in the valley.  It's one of those places where Harvest still carries its traditional meaning, with a very local congregation and a fair few agricultural types there.  Listening to an excellent home-grown sermon from our very own churchwarden, I was struck again by the potency of Harvest to connect with people's spirituality at a deep-down level.  It just seems to mean something to people, even those who don't necessarily darken the doors very often.

I know some of my fellow clergy, jaundiced by singing songs about cabbages green at too many school assemblies, don't care for Harvest too much.  If I was in an urban parish, I might feel the same.  But we shouldn't rush to spurn something which helps us to speak when people want to listen.

I wonder what the new equivalent of Harvest festival might be? What would capture the hearts and minds of the emerging generations of Britons, and prompt them to give thanks to the God who made them?

Comments

Anonymous said…
Where we are there is no farming, so we look at raising funds for WaterAid.
October 16, 2011 at 8:48 PM
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