From the Parish Priest

Harvest is coming earlier this year!

Do you remember Harvest Festivals of old?

• Sheaves of corn placed around the Church;

• fresh fruit and vegetables piled high around the altar;

• children coming to Sunday School bearing jars of home-made jams;

• green decorations and huge marrows around the door of the Church

• and of course, the statutory singing of “We plough the fields and scatter”.

It’s many years since Harvest was celebrated like that - in fact for most people coming to St. George’s Church in 2008, Harvest will never have been kept in that rather romantic and rural way. Instead Harvest Thanksgiving (as it is correctly named) is more about buying a few extra tins or packets from the supermarket. Over recent years, to the food has been added toiletries and cleaning materials as all the gifts are donated to the Two Saints Centres in Portsmouth, Fareham and Southampton.

Harvest, although based on several Jewish Festivals giving thanks for the crops, only started in 1843 in the small Cornish village of Morwenstow. It’s a very popular occasion, and now ranks alongside Christmas and Easter by drawing in people who don’t regularly attend Church.

At St. George’s Church, Harvest Thanksgiving is timed to coincide with a Family Eucharist. This year however, it’s moving a whole month earlier and will be on Sunday September 21st. This is much closer to the real Harvest - the gathering of the crops, and brings this Church in line with local schools and neighbouring parishes. On the previous evening, there’s a Harvest Race Night being held in the Church Hall.

Please support our Harvest appeal again this year by bringing tins, packets, toiletries and cleaning materials for the homeless and recovering addicts helped by the Two Saints Centres.

Fr. Mike