Harvest Thanksgiving

The Benefice of Hurstbourne Priors, Longparish, St Mary Bourne & Woodcott

Harvest Thanksgiving 2009

 For Reflection
Harvest festival is not a celebration of just one season of the year: it is a thanksgiving for the pattern of the seasons by which growth and fruitfulness is sustained. Today, in this service, we shall give thanks for each of the seasons, with their own special gifts to us – and offer thanks for harvest, at the crown of the year.

The Bidding
― There is a time for everything, and a season for every purpose under heaven: a time to sow and a time to reap. (Ecclesiastes 3: 1-2)

The earth is the Lord's     
and all that is in it.   Psalm 24.1
The Lord looked upon the earth:     
and filled it with his blessings.
As long as the earth endures,     
seedtime and harvest, summer and winter shall never cease. Genesis 8.22
The land has yielded its harvest:     
God, our God has blessed us.     Psalm 67.6

HYMN
(during which the children bring up their gifts of food for local good causes) Come, ye thankful people, come,

Lord, you care for the land and water it, you make it rich and fertile.

You prepare grain for your people, for so you provide for the earth.

You soften the ground with showers and make the young crops grow.

You crown the year with your goodness.

May the pastures be filled with flocks

And the valleys stand so thick with corn that they shall laugh and sing.   cf Psalm 65.8-13

Reading: Matthew 6.25-33, from the Sermon on the Mount

 We pause for a moment in silent, thankful prayer, and then say together the Harvest Collect:

Eternal God, you crown the year with your goodness and you give us the fruits of the earth in their season: grant that we may use them to your glory, for the relief of those in need and for our own well-being; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. Amen.

We sing a HYMN or CHORUS

 O give thanks to the Lord of Lords
For his mercy endures for ever!
In your prosperity do not forget the alien and the stranger
Let us not forget our neighbours in their need.
You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power:
for you have created all things, and by your will they have their being.

The Address
The Creed
 

We believe in God the Father, who reveals his love to us in Christ.

We believe in God the Son, who pours out his Holy Spirit on us.

We believe in the Holy Spirit who teaches us God's truth.

We believe in one God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

 We sing a HYMN or CHORUS

The Prayers

We kneel to pray, in confession and thanksgiving:

 Confession
... Father, in your mercy Forgive us and help us
ending ...
Grant us thankful hearts and a loving concern for all people; For Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Thanksgiving

... O give thanks to the Lord of Lords:

For his mercy endures for ever.

Gathering all our prayers and praises into one, we pray together: Our Father, who art in heaven ...

OFFERTORY HYMN
(during which the collection is taken).
We plough the fields, and scatter

 A General Thanksgiving
ALMIGHTY God, Father of all mercies, we thine unworthy servants do give thee most humble and hearty thanks for all thy goodness and loving-kindness to us, and to all men.
We bless thee for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all, for thine inestimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory.
And, we beseech thee, give us that due sense of all thy mercies, that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful, and that we shew forth thy praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives; by giving up ourselves to thy service, and by walking before thee in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.

The Blessing

 At various times in the Service, we may sing – as a round:    

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow,

    praise him, all creatures here below,

praise him above, angelic host,

    praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

    Thomas Ken (1637-1711)