theBythams
 ... a local website, by local people, for local people, viewed by people everywhere



home

news

about theBythams

activities and events

business directory

community services

people

places

walks

groups, clubs and societies

the church
rectors letters
careby
castle bytham
creeton
little bytham

local government

Glenside news

history

galleries

whats new and updated

links

contact us

about the website

 

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