The Welland-Fosse Benefice: Prayers and Notices.

Sunday 12^th September 2021: Trinity XV

 

• Please pray for the sick including Jane Williams, Judith Piggott, Sylvia Martin and Derek Barker. Pray too for the departed, including Barry Broughton.
• Please remember in your prayers Paul Elwys from South Luffenham who is to be Confirmed in Peterborough Cathedral on 10^th
• Zoom Morning Prayer continues on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8.30am. No compline this week.
• Next Sunday (19^th Sep) we are in church at Morcott, at 11am and also on Zoom. Tixover have their Harvest Festival at 5pm in the presence of the High Sheriff.
• Face Masks: up until now we have encouraged people to wear face masks in church but with the break between infections and hospitalization, the immunization rate and the space and airiness of our churches we invite you now to wear a mask or not, as you feel most comfortable. The Covid restrictions on the Holy Communion service will continue.
• 2^nd October, 10 – 12 noon: a garage sale of books at Barrowden Rectory: theology, spirituality, history, reference, novels and some rare books. Most items 50p. 50% of proceeds to benefice funds.

 

Barrowden:

Sunday 12^th September 11 am. non Eucharist Café style  Harvest service.

Harvest lunch following service from 12.15 pm. [names should already be in to Kay Bagshaw]

On Tuesday 14 September there will be a meeting for stewards and potential stewards at 4 pm in church.

 

South Luffenham:

Sunday 12^th September service in church at 9.30am

Sunday 26^th September Harvest Festival at 11am – children will be most welcome.

Harvest Lunch at 12.30pm on 26^th Sep in the Village Hall – tickets £10 from sally@saltlane.com

 

 

Meditation.

This weekend our hearts and minds turn towards the celebration of harvest.  It is not difficult to do in this benefice as the farmers are still working late into the night to beat the declining weather. In a city parish, it is much more challenging to get into the mind of those who produce our food.

 

But am I right in thinking that there is an assumption about harvest, that ‘all will be safely gathered in’, as the hymn states? I feel that there is an arrogance within us, that all will be done as normal on our behalf. The media pundits and the prophets are casting doubt upon the reliability of harvest – not just in this benefice but around the world – because of climate change.

 

Some minds and many more hopes are looking towards Glasgow and the COP26 climate conference which begins in November. Will the world leaders be able to agree on global limitations on noxious gas emissions before it is too late?

I am heartened to realize that COP26 stands for the 26^th annual “Conference of the Parties”. Now that realization has rather shaken me.  I am not a placard-waving firebrand nor a clinically emasculated politician but I am a member of the human Party and a concerned Christian member of that Party. So I have a voice and a prayer to contribute. My voice is for the welfare of my children and grandchildren who will suffer far more than me if we cannot rapidly re-order our lives. And my prayer finds echoes in the first line of this morning’s psalm, “O Lord our governor, how glorious is your name in all the world.” (Psalm 8). The psalm goes on to proclaim that the creator’s work is majestic in spite of the puny nature of human kind.  Our stewardship is not so good. We could do better. 

 

But what will we do? Justin Welby has cut down on travel, on red meat and an official car. Whatever we do will be small but sacrificial …and inconvenient….but it all adds up.