Hello…
Coming Up:
Next movie night will be Friday, October 16, 6pm in the Trinity Centre. We’ll be watching “Dirty Dancing”.
Guild of St. Joseph Breakfast is Saturday, October17, 9am in the Trinity Centre. $10 donation appreciated.
The Algoma Deanery Council is Saturday, October 17, beginning at 10:30am at Church of the Redeemer in Thessalon.
The annual Snowflake Tea and Bake Sale is Saturday, Nov.14, in the Trinity Centre, 11am – 2pm; $15.
“Muffins & Market” is Saturday, December 5 in the Trinity Centre, 10am – 2pm; with various vendors, “new to you” table, baking, etc. Come enjoy a coffee (or tea) and muffin and browse the tables.
A Liturgical Note For You: Acknowledging God’s Bounty…When and Why?
Of course, the obvious answers would be “all the time” and “God created all things, giving us all that we need, and we are grateful”. However, we do have a special day set aside for acknowledging all that we have from God’s generous abundance. Thanksgiving is an important secular holiday observance in our society. It is always the 2nd Monday in October. You can acknowledge this day on the Sunday immediately before (so, Sunday, Oct.11, this year) and call it Harvest Thanksgiving. You can use the regularly scheduled lectionary readings (my preference) and acknowledge Harvest Thanksgiving by having thanksgiving type hymns and, of course, giving thanks during the Prayers of the People. The “propers” (prayers & readings) for “Rogation Days and Harvest Thanksgiving” are on pp.396-7 of the BAS if you’d like to use those.
Now, just to be confusing, you don’t have to have Harvest Thanksgiving on the Sunday right before our Canadian Thanksgiving Monday. According to the rules for this sort of thing in our BAS, “Harvest Thanksgiving may be observed on a Sunday as determined by local custom” (p.16). Depending on where you live in Canada, your congregation may choose a Sunday that is closer to the actual harvest time in your area (just, please, don’t bump a more important Sunday.)
Why did we end up with Harvest Thanksgiving when we have a Thanksgiving Day? The Anglican Church of Canada, of course, originates from the Church of England and England does not have an official Thanksgiving Day. That holiday began on this side of the Atlantic with the immigrants who settled here. Like many other cultures, though, England did celebrate a Harvest Festival and so, the Church of England in Canada (what we started as) inherited this festival. The secular holiday of Thanksgiving Day was added later and eventually became more widely known. Now we have two days that basically celebrate the same thing so you would choose to celebrate one or the other but not both.
Worship services in thanksgiving for harvests have a long history, beginning in ancient times with a couple of festivals mentioned in Scripture – there is the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Ingathering (check out Exodus 23:16, for example). Over the centuries, various countries have called for national “Thanksgiving Days” for a variety of reasons – at the end of conflict, when a widespread sickness finally abated, and when there is an especially plentiful harvest. Harvest Thanksgiving as we know it is a very recent addition to our worship. The first church to make the Harvest Thanksgiving an annual service is believed to be the church of St. Mary and St. Giles at Buckerell, near Honiton in Devon, England. Rev. Edwin Coleridge, held a Harvest Thanksgiving at Buckerell on Friday, 14 October 1840, and then held one every year during which the parish church was decorated with fruits of the harvest. The first Harvest Thanksgiving on a Sunday is thought to have been Sunday, October 1, 1843 in Cornwall, England. The Rev. Robert Hawker of Morwenstow invited all of his parishioners to a special Sunday service to share communion bread made from newly harvested corn. Having freshly made bread created from the fruits of the harvest is a wonderful tradition to begin in your church if you normally use wafers.
By the way, the word “harvest” is the Anglo-Saxon word “haerfest” (Autumn) and refers to the season of reaping and gathering.
A Thanksgiving prayer for you: God of heaven and earth, we sing of your bounty and your goodness in the abundant harvest, in the changing seasons, and in the wonder of nature. With generous hearts, may we share what we have received with those who have little, so that none may hunger or thirst and all may know your wide justice; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
For Your Devotions:
Saturday, October 10th is the commemoration of Paulinus, First Bishop of York, Missionary, died 644. In 601, Paulinus – a Roman monk – was sent to England by Pope Gregory the Great to convert the inhabitants to Christianity. He was made a bishop and set off for Northumbria. The life of an Archbishop in England was a lot different back then – Paulinus did convert the king of Northumbria (Edwin) and many others but then fled to Kent when Edwin was murdered by Anglo-Saxon kings bent on destroying the newly founded church. Never a dull moment…For more information check out p.300 here: https://www.anglican.ca/wp-content/uploads/ForAlltheSaints.pdf
In the joy of Christ,
Susan
