Oct 2018

A Letter from the Curate
Dear Friends,
Suddenly, after what turned out to be a rather fine summer, autumn is upon us.
Members of my household have been very busy collecting conkers and kicking
through fallen, crunchy leaves while I have been marvelling at the changing colours
of the landscape and turning my thoughts to the selection of Harvest Festivals I will
take part in.
A wonderful thing about Harvest Festival, I always think, is the number of people
who are keen to celebrate or have fond recollections of services they attended as
children even if they no longer go to church. There is something about being
thankful for our food and being reminded how good it is to share what food we
have that brings about good feeling.
And this puts me in mind of a Bible story which I seem to have come across more
often than usual over the recent weeks – the Feeding of the 5000.
To refresh your memory, in this story, Jesus, having been teaching a great crowd of
followers is about to call it a day when he realises that these followers must be
hungry. He doesn’t want to send them home hungry so sets about finding out of
anyone has any food to share. It seems like no-one does but then a small boy
steps forward with his small basket of 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. Hardly a lot but
to that boy, all he had and it was all the assembled crowd had between them to
share.
Taking these 5 loaves and 2 fish Jesus performs a miracle and the whole crowd of
over 5000 people are fed with baskets and baskets leftover.
There are two things here about God and about Harvest: the first is that God
provides more than we need and at Harvest we are reminded that the only way we
may all be fed is by sharing what we have. The huge network of people, places and
resources needed to feed us all each depend on one another, and the rest of us
depend on all of them. This sharing of resources and gifts is the only way to ensure
all are fed and cared for but there are still places and ways in which this process
breaks down and some people are left without enough while others waste what
they have.
Harvest is a good time to both give thanks for what we have and to consider again
what we might share so why not join us at one of our Harvest Festival services this
year? St Thomas’ Market Rasen Harvest Festival is on Sunday 14 th October at
10am, Legsby Church’s is on the same day at 4pm and Messy Church Harvest is
on 7 th October at 4.15pm.
Looking forward to seeing you there!
Blessings,
Rev Claire
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