Dear friends,

At our last All Age service, Rory and Laura read beautifully from Ecclesiastes  3:1 : 

            For everything there is a season,
           a time for every activity under heaven.

We were thinking about ‘Back to School’ – the end of holidays and the start of term-time.  Our lives follow the rhythm of the seasons, and we get used to different things going on at different times. 

The great insight of our faith is that all of our times are God’s.  When the young people received biros with a Christian fish on them and pencils with God’s promises to Noah, it was to remind them that school is God’s time as much as church on Sundays is,  and holidays in the sun (or rain). 

In fact, all that we have has come from God, and, as we say each Sunday in the liturgy,  “All things come from You, and of your own we give You”.   We make that visible at Harvest Festival, when, like generations upon generations before us, we bring some of God’s good gifts to us in thanksgiving.  

“A time to plant and a time to harvest”  (Eccl.3:2)

This is a good time to think about two kinds of harvest. 

The first is the money that we receive.  Harvest Festival is about thanking God by giving back some of what is God’s anyway. And it reminds us that we are stewards of God’s creation and the wealth that it provides.  So let’s look at our giving, especially to the Church, and make sure that it expresses our thankfulness adequately.  It’s a time for checking our Standing Orders and envelopes – if you want any help with setting up these, please contact our treasurer, Peter Salgo (01877 387345).  Let’s give generously, just as God has given generously to us.

The other kind of harvest is one that Jesus spoke about in Luke 10:2:   

            "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

Jesus was speaking of the harvest of people – of those who are seeking God.  He longed for them to be reconciled to God in love.  And he sent out his disciples to tell the good news. 

Further on the in magazine, you will find some ideas about we are called as his disciples to be workers in God’s harvest field – one of the ‘Marks of Mission’ that inspires Casting the Net.  Could you bring someone to Harvest Festival, to hear the Good News?

These are difficult economic times for our country, and yet in comparison with much of the world, we are rich beyond belief in material things, though poor in the things of God.  Let’s give thanks for what we have, and work to increase the harvest of faith.  Then there will truly have been

            A time to cry and a time to laugh.

            A time to grieve and a time to dance.