Way back in the early nineties, we had a holiday in the village of Morwenstow slightly north of Bude in North Cornwall. We stayed on a farm and were fed sumptuous meals by the farmers wife and the children were encouraged to go and pick eggs from the hen hut for breakfast and could watch the half a dozen cows being milked. We were also shown the process of making clotted cream, which was a staple of our meals for the week. One lasting memory of the holiday was having scrambled egg with our full English breakfast made using clotted cream! Apologies to any doctors who might be reading and recoiling at the very thought, but like everything that is bad for you, it was delicious. “Thank you, Lord. Amen”
Morwenstow, a tiny village bypassed by most holiday makers as they travel down the A39 is quite important in the history of the harvest festival. Rev Robert Hawker was ordained as a Parish priest in 1831 and became the new incumbent at Morwenstow in 1834. He was quite an eccentric and is an interesting character, you can look him up on the internet. Our host for the holiday in 1992 told us with great pride that Robert Hawker had introduced the Harvest Festival into the Christian Church. Interested in this fact I bought the book about the man and discovered that in 1843 he invited his parishioners to a special thanksgiving service on October 1st that year with the bread for the communion being made from the first corn cut in the fields. Some of us sing in our harvest festivals today “to the Lord, their first fruits bringing, all his thankful people come” and this tradition in the Christian Church comes from this little village in Cornwall.
Another village that I have links with plays a part in the story of the Harvest Festival. By the 1850’s Churches around the country were being decorated and harvest festivals were being celebrated. Rev Dr William Beales, the incumbent at Brooke in South Norfolk was appalled by the disgraceful displays and introduced “harvest homes” the service came at the end of the harvest season and people thanked God for the gathered harvest. I was the minister at Brooke Methodist Church for eight years and was oblivious to the links the village had with our harvest festival. Again, we sing today “all is safely gathered in” and thank God for the bounty of the gathered harvest.
The harvest festivals I am involved in today look very different to the harvest festivals of my childhood when we had huge displays of fresh produce. Our twenty-first century approach is to bring non-perishables, and as we give thanks to God for all that he has given to us, we give to those less fortunate than ourselves and the food is given to food banks, so that others might also celebrate their harvest. A simple celebration like the Harvest Festival while still retaining its core purpose of celebrating the gifts God has given to us has evolved over the course of almost two hundred years to be relevant to each generation.
Prayer.
Generous God, we thank you for the rich variety of the harvest that you give to us, the colours, the textures, the aromas, the tastes, so varied and so plentiful. We remember the challenges facing the modern world and pray that you will help us the be responsible in our use of the gifts you give to us. Amen.