GRATWICH NEWSLETTER
OCTOBER 2021 - <span style="font-size: 1rem;">GRATWICH SERVICES IN OCTOBER</span>
SUNDAY 3rd 7.00pm Evening Prayer VIA ZOOM
SUNDAY 10th 12 noon HARVEST FESTIVAL SERVICE
Followed by Harvest Lunch also in church
SUNDAY 24th 7.00pm Evening Prayer
No need to book a seat now
We are still keeping social distancing and hand sanitising
You are very welcome to come to just the Harvest Service on the 10th October,
Harvest Service and Lunch or just the Lunch, we don’t mind.
But if you would like to come to the lunch - please let Jenny know (01889 502471)
by 2nd October.
There will be a box will be at the back of church for any donations of groceries for our
local foodbank
As you may (or may not!) know St. Mary’s building is in need of rewiring, water connecting, toilet installing and re-decorating! The vision of the PCC is to bring it up
to date without changing it’s appearance thus making it usable for services and social
events – as the only public building in the village it has such potential!
The details of how these things will be achieved will be available at the Harvest Lunch.
Lots of events being planned to look forward to – dates for your diary so far are:
5th November – Bonfire, Fireworks & Best Guy Competition – see flier
26th November - Auction
11th December – Carol Singing on the Croft
22nd January - Fizz & Quiz evening via Zoom
12th February - Murder Mystery Evening
Phone Jenny (01889 502471) for more details.
100 CLUB – September– drawn at the Evening Service on 26th September
1st Millie Capewell 2nd Sally-Anne Lander 3rd Nicola Recine
The next draw will be at the evening service on 24th October in church .
EVENTS OTHER PARISHES
2nd October 10.00am – 12 AUTUMN FAIR in St. Mary’s, Uttoxeter
2nd October 7.00pm St. John’s Marchington Woodlands HARVEST SUPPER
(supper tickets from: G Salt 01283 821587)
3rd October 12.30pm onwards HARVEST FESTIVAL & LUNCH in St. Mary’s Uttoxeter
(contact: Dianne [email protected] for more details & lunch tickets)
20th November 10.00am – 12 noon CHRISTMAS FAIR in St. Mary’s Uttoxeter
Area Letter from Rev. Margaret Sherwin
The Rectory
October 2021
I have an old apple tree in the rectory garden. Since we arrived in July 2016 we have had a crop each year to harvest, with last year's being a bumper crop. This year however, there are very little, if any, apples. We have harvested a large amount of tomatoes – thank you to the kind generosity of those of you who brought me the baby tomato plants during my confinement due to the heel injury! Potatoes and cabbages we have also grown this year – cabbages for the first time. We’re having a competition with the caterpillars as to who gets them first! We have much to celebrate as we eat another meal with our harvested home grown produce.
Celebrating harvest goes very deep in us – it seems to stir in us a sense of our country roots, memories of a land that lived by agriculture before the Industrial revolution. Harvest marks the end of a sequence in the church/country calendar. Plough Sunday in January, when the farm implements were blessed; Rogation Day just before Ascension Day in May, when prayers were made for favourable weather for the growing crops; Lammas Day (not when we celebrate Lamas!) at the beginning of August, when the first loaf made with flour from the new crop was offered in token thanks, and coming full circle, (though it was introduced much later on the liturgical scene, in the 19th Century) Harvest. Time for a pause before it all starts again. Time to be thankful, to remember God’s mercy and goodness, enjoying the sight of full storehouses and barns, pantry shelves and freezers. Time to feel secure against the coming winter. It is good to be thankful, and we come gladly, enjoying the colour, the smells and sometimes gathering together for a Harvest meal.
But there is something uncomfortable about Harvest, too, especially now that we can see on our television and computer screens that there are people who haven’t got a harvest to celebrate, some who haven’t had a harvest for years, perhaps because the rains have failed, perhaps because civil war have made it impossible to cultivate the land. The Jewish people faced the same situation on a smaller scale. Reading the instructions in Deuteronomy we are reminded that God’s people have always been told to be generous and help the poor to share our good fortune. Deuteronomy speaks of very different farming methods, but the message is clear: don’t keep it all to yourself, leave something for those in need.
And the New Testament warns us against taking things for granted, being pleased with our achievement. That man who pulled down his barn and built a bigger one, stuffed it full sat back feeling pleased with himself got a sharp reminder – ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’(Luke 12:16-21) That’s the question Harvest asks us too.
In the Bible, harvest and judgement go together – the parable of the wheat and the tares puts the point very starkly (Matthew 13:24-30). So it’s right and good to be thankful, but we have to ask ourselves how our thankfulness can find expression in making it possible for all humankind to be thankful. We can’t ever sit back and say we’ve done enough – not while there are those children with stick limbs and swollen bellies looking at us hopelessly from our screens.
Imagine if my apple crop this year was a year in year out event and it was what I relied on for food for myself, my family and community. We need to support our local food banks and ‘Helping Hands’ and support those in need. We also need to support the agencies who work to improve farming methods, but also with those who challenge the leaders around the world to remove world debt. We must keep asking the questions and seeking action. Harvest is the point where, far from sitting back and thinking how fortunate we are, we have to prepare to sow the seeds and encourage the growth for the harvest to come, when the will of God will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Rev Margaret Sherwin
Area Rector
For further information about anything in the newsletter, please contact:
Rev. Charles Dale 01889 500428: email: [email protected]
Jenny Talbot: 01889 50241 email: [email protected]
Facebook: St. Mary’s Church Gratwich