Rector's Pondering ...

9 October 2011
Team Rector, Geoffrey Connor
Committed to being involved
John, a Vicar in North Lancashire once told me that on Harvest Sunday he had blessed the Atlantic Ocean . As his parish was extremely land-locked I expressed some scepticism about this. The trouble with you, he told me, was that your vision is too narrow. He then explained that on Harvest Sunday morning he had held a service at a farm in the parish. During this service he had blessed the farm’s water-supply, a stream which ran into a small pool and then out again at the other end. This water then flowed down into a small river which eventually flowed into the mighty Ribble. This in turn flowed out into the Irish Sea and the Irish Sea was eventually joined to the Atlantic Ocean . So John, by a small stretch of imagination and a big vision had indeed blessed the Atlantic Ocean . I was deeply impressed!

John’s big vision was a reflection of God’s vision for Creation. Harvest Festival time is an opportunity to think about the Farming community and the problems Agriculture faces today. It is also appropriate to focus on those who have no harvest. This year has seen a terrible drought in Africa and nearer to home the number of homeless on our city streets is shocking. Both those are a focus on our Harvest Festival this year. However, vitally important though they are, we mustn’t lose sight of the bigger picture. In a world teeming with beauty there is a right moment to say Thank You to God for providing not only for our needs but also for our delight.. When, in 1843, the Revd R.S. Hawker introduced to his parish in Cornwall an Harvest Thanksgiving service, he simply wanted to give thanks to God and to the farming community. He did not guess then that by 1862 such a festival had become so widespread that the Church of England, encouraged by Queen Victoria , made it an official Thanksgiving.

Though that Cornish Vicar lived at a time of rapid and deeply unsettling change in Agriculture as people started to migrate to the new industrial centres seeking work in manufacturing industries, he still saw much to give thanks for. There is a wideness of vision which can take in the difficulties and problems whilst pointing us beyond them. We can get bogged down in the negatives in a way which blots out the positive.

In rural Lancashire during the time I was Vicar of two rural parishes, we had the beef and then the sheep crisis in the space of ten years. Both had a devastating effect on the lives of the farming community. We also lived in an official Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Both the problems and the joys existed side by side. With so much beauty around us the area attracted many visitors. Today many farmers still tend the land but also cater for those in search of the beautiful and the breathtaking. Those indeed who drive or walk through the countryside in search of something we might call spiritual and what you and I would certainly call God. With the brushstrokes of His creativity God has painted on a wide and deep canvas. We should stand back from time to time and enjoy the view.

Harvest is certainly a time to pray for farmers and give thanks for their provision of food. It is also a time to do something practical about the needs of the world. It is, however, particularly, a time to thank God for all his goodness towards us.

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