Last weekend, my rural village church celebrated harvest festival. In a 2019 poll, 67 per cent of parents, from all faiths and none, expressed warm memories of taking part in Christian harvest festivals, saying that they wanted their children to do the same. The perceived benefits were: giving thanks for the good things in our lives, teaching children where their food comes from and showing generosity to people in need.Harvest is one of our farming village’s best-attended services. Even the smallest child can understand. The church is lovingly decorated with flowers and fruit. I organise a choir, to belt out well-loved hymns: We Plough the Fields and Scatter, All Things Bright And Beautiful and Come, Ye Thankful People, Come. The children bring up harvest gifts to the altar, destined for our local food bank.Sometimes, the church does solemnity better than joy; but harvest exemplifies a palpable sense of community, bounty and shared exuberance. Despite some gloomy modern prayers about our destruction of God’s creation, this is a festival and God is good. “Consider the lilies of the field, they neither toil nor spin,” as the Bible reading goes. “[King] Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (Matthew, vi, 28-30).Harvest is more than a nostalgia trip for traditionalists. Certainly, older people revisit happy childhood memories and there is the aroma of apples stored for the winter and smoke from the post-harvest burning of the fields, and people make a corn dolly to take to church. However, recognising the cyclical nature of human existence — “for everything there is a season” (Ecclesiastes, iii, 1) — has what feels like a renewed modern resonance. After 18 months dominated by the pandemic, our human vulnerability to challenges such as disease, weather problems and disruptions to the supply chain feels more relevant than ever.Our food bank’s stock is running low. News reports of empty supermarket shelves add a poignancy to realising our interdependence, reliance on others and the need for connection, for the supply of our most basic human needs.Farmers’ reports at harvest suppers offer insight into lives lived on the land. The TV series Clarkson’s Farm has recently engendered a wider respect for farmers and a more sympathetic understanding of the problems that they face every year. Their livelihood is dependent almost entirely on the weather and other factors beyond their control. No prayer is perhaps more heartfelt than a farmer’s prayer for rain — or for it to stop raining.Small rural churches often seem rather marginalised, treated in diocesan league tables like “failed” urban churches. They cannot apply for strategic development funding from the Church Commissioners, whose own bounty is used to try and improve attendance in urban areas. Yet harvest allows countryside communities a big moment of celebration.It is well deserved. The underappreciated rural church pulls its weight in terms of percentage attendance. On an average Sunday, 40 per cent of bottoms on Church of England pews are in rural areas, although they contain only 17 per cent by population. At Christmas, 50 per cent of churchgoers are rural. Figures for donations suggest that rural churches also punch well above their weight in that regard.Harvest conveys a feeling of handing on the baton to the next generation. I have so far failed to pass on my Christian faith to my own children, who accept the common social attitude that religion is the cause of war. However, in my own life, Christianity has been nothing but a source of comfort and joy. The author John Buchan said that an atheist was a man who had “no invisible means of support”. I hope that small rural churches will stay open long enough for my children to return to them if they ever want to do so.Harvest suppers showcase the glories of nature, coming to terms with not being in control, looking after the hungry and needy and the wonderful reading from St Matthew about the lilies of the field, advising against worrying about what to wear. They add up to a message that the nation’s mental health problems could be addressed if we looked not inwards but upwards and outwards, with gratitude at all the good gifts around us.Emma Thompson is a freelance writer and a member of Save the Parish
UP TO 50 candidates in the General Synod elections are standing in some dioceses, presenting electors with a mountain of addresses to read, and sometimes — in a new departure for the new quinquennium — videos to watch.Voting closes on 8 October: hustings are scheduled during the next two weeks.Southwark tops the list: it has 24 clergy standing and 27 lay people. Chichester comes next, with 17 and 33 respectively, up from 15 and 16 last time. Oxford has 23 clergy and 24 lay; Chelmsford has 16 of each; Manchester has 17 and 13; York has figures of 11 and 21. By contrast, the two candidates standing in Sodor & Man have been elected unopposed, and the process is complete.This was the first time in the Synod’s 50-year history that the elections had been advertised nationally, with a 90-second film, a short explanatory animation, and a dedicated webpage. The secretary-general of the Archbishops’ Council and the General Synod, William Nye, said in July: “We are praying that the leadership of the Church of England, including bodies like General Synod, may become more representative of the people of England — and that means younger and more diverse.“This campaign has a very clear message which we hope will reach everyone in the wider Church: if you want to be part of making decisions affecting the whole Church of England and debating matters of national and international importance, this is your chance. Will you stand?”All the candidates’ addresses have been posted on their diocesan website, with no limit, in most cases, on the number of words. Some are, in effect, full CVs. Others paint a picture of clerical family life with children and dogs: ”I am blessed with a vicarage buzzing with our four teenagers, their school friends, church friends and girlfriends.”
We hope you can join us at St Mary and All Saints' Church, Dunsfold for tomorrow's joint parish Holy Communion service at 10am. Our celebrant is the area dean, Canon Roy Woodhams.If you can't be with us in person you can join us by clicking on the Zoom link below. Harvest Festival is traditionally a special time in the calendar for a rural parish like Dunsfold and having had a sneak preview yesterday I can tell you that our already beautiful church has been decorated exquisitely for the occasion. A special thank you to those involved in tastefully adorning the church with flowers and symbols of agricultural produce that emphasise our reliance on the land.Join Zoom Meetinghttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/5253921788?pwd=MC9kNmpldmFrRSsrV1pkc1k5aU1vZz09Meeting ID: 525 392 1788Passcode: 379904
Many people whose disabilities and health conditions would have claimed their lives in childhood benefit from this longevity too, not just older people. But how well we live is as important as how long we live. More of us will need some kind of care and support to help us live the best lives we can. As a society, we’ve yet to think through how we meet these growing needs and how we pay for them.Every government over the last three decades has struggled to answer these questions, with innumerable reports, reviews and commissions. So, hopes were raised when the government finally announced its plans, with the centrepiece proposal for a cap or limit on how much individuals should have to pay towards the cost of their care (currently anyone with more than £23,250 has to pay the lot without any help from the state). Undoubtedly this will help some, especially those who stand to lose most of their modest savings. But as the dust settles after the government’s announcement, many questions remain. It is not clear how much new money will be available to social care, and when. The lion’s share is heading for the NHS. The new cap will not be introduced until 2023, and on its own will not sort out the bigger challenges facing our care services, including rising numbers of people with unmet needs, unsupported family carers and a fatigued, underpaid and poorly paid workforce with over 112,000 vacancies. None of these pressing needs is addressed in the Government’s proposals. Instead, it has promised a White Paper to look at these wider issues. In the meantime, Coronavirus and Brexit are placing further strains on our creaking system. There are fundamental questions about what is the nature and purpose of care in our complex, 21st-century society. What is the right balance of responsibilities between the state, individuals, families and communities – including faith communities?That is why the Archbishops of Canterbury and York have set up a new commission – Reimagining Care – to engage with these deeper issues where theology and faith can offer fresh and distinctive perspectives, especially on the enduring values and principles which should underpin care and caring. As Archbishop Justin has reminded us “reimagination of Britain as a country in which human beings flourish has to put high-quality social care, public and mental health at the heart of its objectives.” The Commission aims to inform the national debate and influence national policy by drawing on the work of churches in communities and by identifying practical ideas, informed by extensive listening, and gathering examples of good practice. My aspiration is that the Commission will inject a sense of hope and possibility that after years of neglect real change can be brought about in this vital public service on which most of us will draw at some point in our lives.
