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the
church : rectors letter : september 2003
Added 31/08/03
Reproduced from Glenside
News : September 2003
"Dear Friends
I was looking through my Church Diary for September, seeking inspiration
for this Letter when the phone rang. The caller wanted to know when
and where the Harvest Festival was taking place this year. Having
told them it was to be at Creeton on 28th September I looked again
at my diary and was reminded that the following day was the Festival
of St Michael and All Angels. "Now there's a strange thing!"
I thought, two festivals, one official and one unofficial on successive
days. There's no doubt which the most popular one is, harvest wins
by a street, but it is the other one that has the official blessing
of the Church and whose origin goes back to the earliest days of
Christianity.
If you look at the Old Prayer Book you will find no mention of Harvest
Festival because it is really a modern invention. It was started
by a certain Reverend Stephen Hawker, regarded as an eccentric,
even by his own people, he was Vicar of Morwenstow (Cornwall) during
the first half of the 19th Century. It was in September 1843 that
he had his bright idea that was to have such an influence upon Church
worship at this time of the year. he issued an invitation to all
those who lived in the parish to "gather together on the first
Sunday of next month and there receive the bread of the new corn".
The people flocked in, curiosity being the main motivation, and
a tradition was 'born' that persists to this day. In fact, it became
so popular during the last century that congregations seem to believe
it is part of the official Church calendar. For those who attended
the first service it was a revelation, when they entered they found
the church had been decorated with fruit, vegetables and flowers.
It caused a sensation, was covered in the national press, and before
you could say " a bunch of turnips" it was spreading like
wildfire throughout the country. We have all been 'ploughing the
fields and scattering ' ever since, irrespective of whether or not
we had a good harvest. not being a farmer I have no idea how good
it is this year, but from a layman's point of view it's been a wonderful
summer. So I hope we will see many of you at Creeton on 28th and
I hope we have a nice day for it. A final footnote on the Rev Hawker,
who I said was an eccentric. He was known throughout his life as
a practical joker, his best known prank being to turn the local
doctor's horse into a zebra through the careful application of white
paint. History does not record the aftermath.
The other festival I mentioned was that of St Michael and All Angels.
This falls on September 29th each year, so it is not always the
day after our Harvest. It is also known as Michaelmas and clergy
ordinations traditionally took place on the nearest Sunday. Today
there seems a tendency to hold such events in early summer, often
on Trinity Sunday, but I, like most priests years ago, was 'done'
at Michealmas. And I've always thought it a strange choice, mainly
because I find the subject rather difficult. It's not that I don;t
believe in angels, they figure extensively in the Bible particularly
in those wonderful Christmas stories, it's just that I'm never really
sure what I'm meant to say about them. I feel a bit like the Archdeacon
who was shown over a Church school by the rector of the village.
When he entered the senior class a Scripture lesson was in progress,
the subject being the story of Jacob's Ladder with the angels ascending
and descending between earth and the throne of God. "Please
sir, do angels have wings?" asked one child, to which the worthy
man replied, "Yes of course, all angels have wings". "Then
why do they climb the ladder and not fly?" said the child,
leaving the Archdeacon somewhat at a loss. There was a long silence
until the children took pity and put him out of his misery with
the killer blow. "I know", said done little girl, "They
must have been in molt!""
The Rev Bryan Bennett
Castle Bytham Rectory
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