St Augustine's Harvest Thanksgiving

Name: St Augustine's Harvest Thanksgiving
Start: 2024-10-06T10:30:00+01:00
End: 2024-10-06T12:00:00+01:00
Location: St Augustine's Church, Edgbaston

Schedule

Sun Oct 06 2024 at 10:30 am to 12:00 pm

UTC+01:00

Location

St Augustine's Church, Edgbaston | Birmingham, EN

Harvest Festival reminds Christians of all the good things God gives them. This makes them want to share with others who are not so fortunate.
The tradition of celebrating Harvest Festival in churches began in 1843, when the Reverend Robert Hawker invited parishioners to a special thanksgiving service at his church at Morwenstow in Cornwall. This led to the custom of decorating churches with home-grown produce for the Harvest Festival service.
The traditional ways of celebrating the harvest still survive today. Nowadays, children also take gifts of fruit and vegetables to church and present them during the harvest service whilst the harvest hymn 'We plough the fields and scatter' is sung.
Parishoners also bring food from home to the Harvest Festival Service. After the service, the food that has been put on display is donated to the local foodbank for the benefit of those who are finding it hard to make ends meet in these austere times.
After the service there will be a Harvest Festival buffet in the Narthex. All are welcome.
"And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field"
Exodus 23:16