CHRISTIAN AID 2005 HARVEST -
"REAP CHANGE"
At
Saint Faith's and Saint Mary's, Sunday 2nd October, 2005, was
celebrated as Harvest Festival Sunday - but with the emphasis on the
needs of the
world. Instead of harvest gifts of flowers, fruit and food, the
congregation offered gifts of money to support the Christian Aid
campaign to help the people of Bangladesh to grow and harvest food for
their own great needs.
Part
of the Order of Service Is reproduced below: some of the material
was provided by Christian Aid, and the address, given by Mrs Kathleen
Zimak, also focussed on the world-wide harvest and our part in making
it grow.
Prayer for use
during this week:
Creator God, you made the goodness of the land, the riches of the sea
and the rhythm of the seasons; as we thank you for the harvest, may we
cherish and respect this planet and its peoples, through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Amen.
Some
reflections from the Christian Aid website:
Indeed, what time is there when a man is so ready, careful and watchful
as at the time of prayer?
St. Isaac the Syrian
The hope of a secure and liveable world lies with disciplined
nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.
Martin Luther King Jr., from
"Strength to Love", 1963
Just as the wave cannot exist for itself, but is ever a part of the
heaving surface of the ocean, so must I never live my life for itself,
but always in the experience which is going on around me.
Albert Schweitzer, surgeon and Nobel
Peace Prize winner for the year 1952
Caring can be learned by all human beings, can be worked into the
design of every life, meeting an individual need as well as a pervasive
need in society.
Mary Catherine Bateson, writer,
cultural anthropologist and Professor Emerita at George Mason University
THE ORDER OF SERVICE
Today we thank God for the Harvest and
for all the good things created by Him.
We also think of those less fortunate than ourselves and pray today for
the work of Christian Aid seeking to bring relief to the needy people
Bangladesh.
ENTRANCE
HYMN
We plough the fields, and scatter
the good seed on the land,
but it is fed and watered
by God's almighty hand:
he sends the snow in winter,
the warmth to swell the grain,
the breezes, and the sunshine,
and soft, refreshing rain.
All good gifts around us
are sent from heaven above;
then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord,
for all his love.
He only is the maker
of all things near and far;
he paints the wayside flower,
he lights the evening star;
the winds and waves obey him,
by him the birds are fed;
much more to us, his children,
he gives our daily bread.
All good gifts...
We thank thee then, O Father,
for all things bright and good,
the seed-time and the harvest,
our life, our health, our food.
Accept the gifts we offer
for all thy love imparts,
and, what thou most desirest,
our humble thankful hearts.
All good gifts...
Give thanks to the Lord for he is good.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
We come to worship God and to thank him for all his
gifts.
But first we say sorry for our sins and for the times when we fail to
share our bread with the hungry.
God our Father, we are sorry
for the times when we have used your gifts carelessly,
and acted ungratefully.
Hear our prayer, and in your mercy:
forgive us and help us.
We enjoy the fruits of the harvest,
but sometimes forget that you have given them to us.
Father, in your mercy:
forgive us and help us.
We belong to a people who are full and satisfied,
but ignore the cry of the hungry.
Father, in your mercy:
forgive us and help us.
We are thoughtless,
and do not care enough for the world you have made.
Father, in your mercy:
forgive us and help us.
We store up goods for ourselves alone,
as if there were no God and no heaven.
Father, in your mercy:
forgive us and help us.
+ May God our Father forgive us our
sins,
and bring us to the fellowship of his table
with his saints for ever. Amen.
Eternal
God, you crown the year with your goodness and you give us the fruits
of the
earth in their season: grant that we may use them to your glory, for
the relief
of those in need and for our own well-being; through Jesus Christ your
Son our
Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy
Spirit, one
God, now and for ever. Amen
A READING FROM
THE LETTER OF JAMES
But be doers of the word and not merely hearers who
deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers,
they are
like those who look at themselves in a mirror. For they look at
themselves and
on going away immediately forget what they were like. Religion that is
pure and
undefiled before God the Father, is this: to care for orphans and
widows in
their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. What good
is it my
brothers and sisters if you say that you have faith but do not have
works? Can
faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food,
and one
of you says to them, 'Go in peace: keep warm and eat your fill' and yet
you do
not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by
itself if
it has no works is dead.
SONG OF PRAISE
FOR THE HARVEST
Praise God for the harvest of orchard and field,
Praise God for the people who gather their
yield,
The long hours of labour, the skills of a team,
The patience of science, the power of machine.
Praise God for the harvest that comes from afar,
From market and harbour, the sea and the shore:
Foods packed and transported, and gathered and
grown
By God-given neighbours, unseen and unknown.
Praise God for the harvest that’s quarried and
mined,
Then sifted, and smelted, or shaped and refined;
For oil and for iron, for copper and coal,
Praise God, who in love has provided them all.
Praise God for the harvest of science and skill,
The urge to discover, create and fulfil;
For dreams and inventions that promise to gain
A future more hopeful, a world more humane.
Praise God for the harvest of mercy and love
From leaders and peoples who struggle and serve
For patience and kindness, that all may be led
To freedom and justice, and all may be fed.
A
READING FROM THE HOLY GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK
Jesus began to teach them many things in parables and
in his teaching he said to them,
Now it happened that, as he sowed, some of the seed
fell on the edge of the path, and the birds came and ate it up.
Some seed fell on rocky ground where it found
little soil and at once sprang up, because there was no depth of earth;
and
when the sun came up it was scorched and, not having any roots, it
withered
away. Some seed fell into thorns, and
the thorns grew up and choked it, and it produced no crop.
He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is
like. A man scatters seed on the
land. Night and day, while he sleeps,
when he is awake, the seed is sprouting and growing; how, he does not
know. Of its own accord the land produces first the
shoot, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the
crop is ready, at once he starts
to reap because the harvest has come. He also said, ‘What can we say
that the
kingdom is like? What parable can we
find for it? It is like a mustard seed
which, at the time of its sowing, is the smallest of all the seeds on
earth. Yet once it is sown it grows into
the biggest shrub of them all and puts out big branches so that the
birds of
the air can shelter in its shade.
OFFERTORY
HYMN
Come, ye thankful people, come,
raise the song of harvest-home!
All be safely gathered in,
ere the winter storms begin;
God, our Maker, doth provide
for our wants to be supplied;
come to God's own temple, come;
raise the song of harvest-home!
We ourselves are God's own field,
fruit unto his praise to yield;
wheat and tares together sown,
unto joy or sorrow grown;
first the blade and then the ear,
then the full corn shall appear:
grant, O harvest Lord, that we
wholesome grain and pure may be.
For the Lord our God shall come,
and shall take his harvest home;
from his field shall purge away
all that doth offend, that day;
give his angels charge at last
in the fire the tares to cast,
but the fruitful ears to store
in his garner evermore.
Then, thou Church triumphant, come,
raise the song of harvest-home;
all be safely gathered in,
free from sorrow, free from sin,
there for ever purified
in God's garner to abide:
come, ten thousand angels, come,
raise the glorious harvest-home!
PRAYER
OVER THE GIFTS
Source of
all life, the heaven and earth are yours, yet you have given us
dominion over
all things. Receive these symbols of our labour and love which we offer
you
this day; in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
THE EUCHARISTIC
PRAYER
Almighty God, good Father to us all, Your face is
turned towards your world.
In love you gave us Jesus your Son To rescue us from
sin and death.
Your Word goes out to call us home to the city where angels sing
your praise.
We join with them in heaven's song, saying together:
Holy, holy, holy Lord,
God of power and might,
heaven and earth are full of your
glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of
the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.
Father of all, we give you thanks for every gift that
comes from heaven. To the darkness Jesus came as your light.
With signs of faith and words of hope he touched
untouchables with love and washed the guilty clean.
This is his story.
This is our song. Hosanna in the
highest.
The crowds came out to see your Son, yet at the end
they turned on him.
On the night he was betrayed he came to table with his
friends to celebrate the freedom of your people.
This is his story.
This is our song. Hosanna in the
highest.
Jesus blessed you, Father, for the food, He took
bread, gave thanks, broke it and said:
This is my body, given for you all.
Jesus then gave thanks for the wine, took the cup, gave it and said:
This is my
blood, shed for you all for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in
remembrance of
me.
This is our story.
This is our song. Hosanna in the
highest.
Therefore, Father, with this bread and this cup
We
celebrate the cross On which he died to set us free.
Defying death he rose
again and is alive with you to plead for us and all the world.
This is our story.
This is our song. Hosanna in the
highest.
Send your Spirit upon us now that by these gifts +
we may feed on Christ: with opened eyes and hearts on fire.
May we and all who
share this food Offer ourselves to live for you
And be welcomed at your feast
in heaven
Where, with the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Faith and all the Saints
All
creation worships you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit:
+ Blessing and honour and glory and
power
Be yours for ever and ever. Amen.
THE LORD'S
PRAYER
Our Father in heaven,
You who give us our bread today,
turn our eyes and hearts
towards all those who in this world
have neither bread, nor home,
nor justice, nor hope.
Forgive us our offences,
and especially
our insatiable desire for things.
We lack nothing
While our brothers and sisters lack everything.
Help us live simply,
to conquer our imagined needs
and our exaggerated expenses,
in order to be able to share
and to love more.
It is by this that we will be
brothers and sisters,
that we will work with you,
that your kingdom will come
on earth as it is in heaven,
and that your will be done in the world. Amen.
COMMUNION
HYMN
Praise and thanksgiving Father, we offer,
For all things living Thou madest good:
Harvest of sown fields, Fruits of the orchard,
Hay from the mown fields, Blossom and wood.
Bless thou the labour We bring to serve thee,
That with our neighbour We may be fed.
Sowing or tilling We would work with thee;
Harvesting, milling, For daily bread.
Father, providing Food for thy children,
Thy wisdom guiding Teaches us share
One with another, So that rejoicing,
Sisters and brothers May know thy care.
Then will thy blessing reach every people;
All lands confessing Thy gracious hand.
Where thy will reigneth No one will hunger:
Thy love sustaineth, Fruitful the earth.
POST-COMMUNION
PRAYER
Lord of the
harvest, with joy we have offered thanksgiving for your love in
creation
and
have shared in the bread and the wine of the kingdom:
by your grace plant within
us a reverence for all that you give us
and make us generous and wise stewards
of the good things we enjoy;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
FINAL HYMN
Let us sing the God of glory who has set the
stars in place,
With the planets in their courses as they cross
the heaven’s face,
And the constellations shining to the boundaries
of space, our God whose Name is love!
Glory, glory, alleluia, Glory, glory,
alleluia,
Glory, glory, alleluia, Our God whose
Name is
love!
Let us sing the God of beauty in the mountains
and the seas,
All the colours of the rainbow and the tracery
of trees,
In the thunder of the breakers and the whisper
of the breeze,
Our God whose Name is love!
Let us sing the God of bounty for a fruitful
earth and fair,
Who provides for us in plenty so that all may
have a share,
And who loves his human family and has us in his
care,
Our God whose name is love!
Let us sing the Saviour Jesus as he makes the
Father known,
Let us hear his Spirit’s call to us to come and
be his own,
And to worship him in glory on his everlasting
throne,
Our God whose name is love.
May God, who feeds the whole human family
with his goodness,
give you joyful hearts which sing his praise;
nd the
blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son, + and the Holy Spirit,
be
among you, and remain with you always. Amen.