Pastoral Letter – August 2020 from Revd Elke Cattermole
“Ask the Lord of the Harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field”.
Matthew 9:38
We may think of August as the month we have our holidays, especially if you have children. This is as we know living in such a beautiful rural area of Suffolk is not the case for our farmers. August is one of the months that they gather in the different types of crops that are needed to sustain the food chain.
Celebration of harvest is an ancient custom and used to be celebrated at the beginning of the Harvest season on 1 August and was called Lammas, meaning loaf mass. Farmers made loaves of bread from the fresh wheat crop. These were given to the local church as the communion bread during a special service thanking God
for the harvest. Nowadays the festival is held in our churches in September or October after all the harvest has been collected in.
This year has been difficult for our farmers, they had a very wet winter and not really a spring and went into a period of very sunny summer weather and not much rain. Not all the crops are quite what they should be. These last few months have been strange and difficult months, for all of us and affecting us in different ways. From the 1st August those who have been shielding will be able to go out and interact with other people. August this year may be a turning point in the way we have been living throughout this year.
As with farmers God has walked and been beside us through this difficult time and we have seen the beauty and creation of this world in different ways. Not just in the natural environment but through the love, care, and blessings we have shared with one another.
Whatever you are planning this August, take care and keep safe.
Early Harvest Prayer
“We bless you, God of Seed and Harvest,
And we bless each other,
That the beauty of this world,
And the love that created it,
Might be expressed though our lives
And be a blessing to others,
Now and always.” AMEN
God Bless you all.
Revd Elke