“All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above, so thank the Lord, lets thank the Lord for all his love”

The refrain of the Hymn “We Plough the Fields and Scatter” can, for me, be a bit of an earworm through the autumnal season; a season where we pay attention to fruit that emerges from God’s creation and gives thanks for its blessing.

Yet it would be strange to think that this was the only time of thanksgiving during the year, we gives thanks for many different seasons of life and church, be that at Harvest, Christmas, Easter or Pentecost when we are aware of God’s goodness and presence.

Yet there is a specific focus for thanksgiving connected to this season of creation that asks us to reflect on the different ways in which we are connected to God through the physical earth and also to each other. Harvest time has at its heart that core of bringing people together and being aware of our reliance on the physical land that we inhabit. It is a constant reminder that we are dependent on God’s creation and on other people. The gathering “in” of crops is a way of stewarding the gifts of creation well, to prepare us for the harsher months. God gives abundantly but it is for us to be resourceful and creative with the ways in which that is then used and shared for the good of all God’s people. We are in that way invited into the creative process with God. It is therefore a season of thanksgiving, generosity and sharing – all of which point us towards the connectivity that is ever more vital today in order to ensure the flourishing of all God’s creation. Thanks be to God.

All Saints are celebrating Harvest this Sunday – please bring food which can then be taken to Fishponds Food Bank and the Julian Trust. St Marys are celebrating Dedication this weekend, and then Harvest on the 15^th October.

Our Services this weekend – Sunday 1^st October

10am – Creative Church – Thanksgiving – Creative Team – St Marys

10.30am – Harvest Festival Communion with Band and Junior Church – All Saints

12noon – Harvest Community Lunch – Everyone welcome – Bring a Gift! – All Saints

6.30pm – Dedication Festival Choral Evensong – St Marys

THE WEEK AHEAD

Wednesday 3^rd October – 9am Celtic Morning Prayer – All Saints

Thursday 4^th October – 10am – Holy Communion – St Marys

Saturday 6^th October 12-2pm – Saturday Lunches – St Marys

Sunday 7^th October – 8am Holy Communion – All Saints

10am Sung Holy Communion – St Marys

10.30am – Messy Muddy Church – All Saints

7.15pm – Generations Youth – All Saints

Blessings,

Revd. Lizzie