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Rosey's Letter - October 2004 Dear Friends,
I am really looking forward to Harvest this year – more than ever in my life before – because this is the first time that I’ve actually celebrated Harvest while living in the countryside, rather than being a holiday visitor. I know that the outskirts of Nailsea aren’t exactly wild open spaces – but the new Rectory does overlook fields, and I have so much appreciated being able to walk over the fields to church for Morning Prayer and being able to observe the gradually ripening crops, changing from green to gold. Now ‘all is safely gathered in’ – though the farmers have had a tough time of it, and we’re reminded that being dependent on nature, especially at a time when global warming is causing havoc with the weather, is a precarious business.
Whatever the problems with this year’s harvest, however, we have an abundance of food in our supermarkets, freezers and cupboards. Many people enjoy a standard of affluence never known before – and it is so easy to take it all for granted; consumer culture encourages us to feel dissatisfied and crave for more. Harvest is a time to be reminded of how fortunate we are, how much we have been given, how generous is the God of all creation.
The local church, lavishly decorated with fruit, flowers, vegetables, sheaves of corn, and all the autumnal beauty of harvest, becomes the focal point of our desire to say thank you for all our blessings; come and celebrate with us at Wraxall (10.30) and Failand (6pm.) on 3rd October. But our gratitude needs to be more than a seasonal cheerful harvest hymn. As one of the Psalms puts it:
‘What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me?’ (Ps.116,v.12)
What is our response, when we pause to consider how well blessed we are? We shall bring our harvest gifts, which will be distributed among the needy in Bristol. We may well pause to think again about our giving to charity, when we consider those in the world who are starving and destitute. We may consciously try to live lives that are more generous towards others. And there will also be an opportunity to give to the local church, when All Saints’ Wraxall has its annual Gift Day on 30th October. Could you perhaps think of expressing your gratitude with a special gift this year? (Putting it in one of our
special Gift Day envelopes would mean that tax in respect of your gift could be claimed back, too). You might also consider including a legacy for the church in your will.
The poet George Herbert wrote:
‘Thou that hast giv’n so much to me, give one thing more, a grateful heart.’
Please take time at this Harvest season to look around at this beautiful area in which we are privileged to live, and to say thank you to God for all the blessings we enjoy. And if you are really thankful, think of what you can give in return.
With love,
Rosey
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