All things come from you and of your own do we give you.
WE ALL know that Christian Harvest Festivals have their roots in the biblical practice of giving to God the first fruits of every collaboration between human beings and the rest of creation. From the instructions for the Festival of Ingathering, in Exodus, through details for celebrating Sukkot found in Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, right up to the parables of Jesus, the Bible has agricultural and pastoral imagery and references running like a green thread through its many books.
In the English Church, harvest festival as we know it today was apparently reinvented by a marketing-savvy Cornishman in the 19th century, although gratitude for crops safely stored and livestock born has a much longer tradition. Our connection with our environment is a wonderful, godly thing, to be taken seriously; and our well-being depends on the well-being of our planet.
I BELIEVE I have taken more than 100 different “Harvest Festivals”, in contexts ranging from muddy farmyards to oxygen-depleted retirement homes, and from urban primary schools to red-trousered semi-rural congregations. I have shared in suppers given by the owner of a large estate to thank their workers for efforts of the previous year as a record harvest is gathered in, and have struggled to find words for communities whose livelihoods were washed away in the floods of 2007, when cheerful farmyards were transformed into wastelands of mud and soggy hay-bales.
I have seen home-grown courgettes, marrows, apples, and carrots piled in overflowing heaps on the chancel steps, all topped with a triumphant harvest loaf — and half-a-dozen tins and a bunch of flowers set forlornly against the altar by a community totally distanced from the physical work of food production. One size cannot fit all: “Harvest Festival” is both broad and deep, and therein lies the challenge for the minister.
THIS is because Harvest is not like Christmas or Easter, when we are celebrating something universal and world-changing. For these occasions, all Christian churches share a single message: Christ is born! Christ is risen! The challenge there is how to deliver these transformative truths in the most appropriate way for our context, without disguising them behind the medium so heavily that the message is lost.
In contrast, Harvest is a container for a multiplicity of ideas and themes. It is not enough simply to know the history of harvest festivals, or how harvest has been celebrated in the Bible — important, certainly, but not the end of the matter. Just as Paul wrote his letters addressing specific issues to particular communities based in Corinth, Ephesus, etc., so our preaching and liturgy must be direct and focused.
Rather than exegete the Bible, we must carry out the same process in our locality. We drill down into what Harvest might mean for our communities at this particular time, trying to discern what their relationship is with a theme, before seeking to build on this. Only then will it be possible to expand outwards and upwards, and explore how the aspect of Harvest on which we have chosen to focus might relate to the wider picture, whether this is regional, national, or global.
Still more important, it is only after we have decided on the message that Harvest might hold for our community, and where this fits in the bigger picture, that we can move on to a discussion of where God sits among it all, and how he might be discovered, better appreciated, or more deeply understood through this particular celebration.
SO, DOES your congregation need to learn about food production, perhaps focusing on environmental issues and our responsibility to ensure that what we eat has been produced in the most beneficial way for all creation?
Are you going to look at “food miles”, and promote the use of local produce, aware at the same time that the survival of communities in other countries might depend on our consumption of what they grow?
Is the emphasis to be on sharing what we have been given in such generous quantities with those who have not been so fortunate, and, if so, what shape will that take — supporting local foodbanks, or overseas aid charities?
Perhaps you will use the opportunity to connect your contemporary community with its ancestors, bringing back ancient traditions and celebrating Lammas Day as well as Harvest, making corn dollies, and eating traditional food together. It may be enough to focus on one type of foodstuff, explore its variety, wonder at its ingenious construction, and give praise to the one whose imagination created it; or simply to gaze in awe at the landscape that surrounds us.
Is your vehicle going to be a traditional Harvest service, or something more specialised — a trip to a local farm or food producer? Will you incorporate a shared meal, and, if so, who will you invite? Will you have an ambulatory event similar to rogation, or will you seek to bring the outside in with wild decorations?
As with all these seasonal services, if we as church leaders take the time to study our congregations and their wider communities, listening to their concerns and learning what matters to them, we can integrate this with the gospel message to produce an occasion that is profound and effective, encouraging and challenging — and maybe even as memorable as “the one where the bull escaped. . .”.
The Revd Dr Sally Welch is Vicar of the Kington Group in the diocese of Hereford.
Resources:
Practical Points:
- You may be sick of singing “Come, ye thankful people, come” and “We plough the fields”, but omit them at your peril. Such hymns provide continuity and rhythm in communities whose lives are based on the seasons, and remind urbanites that there is a whole world out there of which they are unaware, but that is, nevertheless, vitally important.
- Establish well in advance where the harvest produce goes, and whether it will be gratefully accepted. You may find that 15 butternut squashes are not as highly sought after as two dozen cans of baked beans. Ask for a list of preferred items that the congregation can shop for. Many churches now auction off fresh produce to the congregation and donate the result to a food- or water-related charity. Others don’t go down the “harvest display” route at all, but make a collection instead
- Unless the money raised and/or collected is going to the church, remember that you have a legal obligation to let people know where their money is going. This should ideally happen in advance of the service, but certainly before the collection is taken.
