17th Sunday after Trinity

Harvest Festival

Welcome to our Harvest Festival Service. Dried and tinned foods are being collected for Slaithwaite Mutual Aid and Marsden Welcome Centre: to support those who are vulnerable within our communities who are unable to get food during this pandemic. Celebrating the ‘Harvest’ is a moment when we recognise that all good things come from God, and we give thanks.

Family Friendly Holy Communion

St Bartholomew’s and St James’ Churches have a tradition of running an intentionally and explicitly ‘family friendly’ service on the first Sunday of the month. The combination of coronavirus interrupting normal patterns of worship, and having a new Vicar, mean that we’re developing a new pattern of worship and hope that it harmonises with the spiritual nature of our community.

By using simplified language and repetition, we hope to make it easier for all ages to learn responses that are easy to engage with, but also contain the essentials of Christian faith. This is a learning process for us all.

Welcome

God is good
All the time
All the time
God is good.

Confession

God, we are sorry for the times when we have used your gifts carelessly, and acted ungratefully.
Father God, in your mercy:
forgive us and help us.

We enjoy the fruits of the harvest, but sometimes forget that you have given them to us.
Father God, in your mercy:
forgive us and help us.

We belong to a people who are full and satisfied, but ignore the cry of the hungry.
Father God, in your mercy:
forgive us and help us.

We are thoughtless, and do not care enough for the world you have made.
Father God, in your mercy:
forgive us and help us.

We store up goods for ourselves alone, as if there were no God and no heaven.
Father God, in your mercy:
forgive us and help us.

Absolution

May the God of love and power,
forgive you and free you from your sins,
heal and strengthen you by his Spirit,
and raise you to new life in Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Amen.

Collect Prayer for Harvest

Eternal God,
you crown the year with your goodness
and you give us the fruits of the earth in their season:
grant that we may use them to your glory,
for the relief of those in need and for our own well-being;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen

The Bible is read for us today by Carol Holdsworth. If you would like to read along they are here following this link, or you may prefer a different version in your own Bible: 2 Corinthians 9:6-15 and Luke 12.16-30

Sermon for Harvest Festival

God you made all this possible

This is the Harvest Festival season and churches all over the country are working with schools to have Harvest related celebrations, sing traditional songs, or maybe even the “Harvest Samba”! Being thankful for the harvest begs the question, “what is the harvest?” This question made me think: in the last year what have been the fruits of my labours?

I looked back through my calendar and remembered the things that have happened since the last Harvest Festival. I remembered that I was interviewed to be the Vicar in October 2019. I remembered the Curacy I was finishing in Welton and the ministry I had been blessed with, the people I knew and the ways we’d worked together. I remembered the way Leeds Diocese helped me to move to Slaithwaite and the wonderful installation service on the 18^th February. I remembered the warm welcome you gave me to the Colne Valley.

I remembered that we had started worshipping together when the virus started.

I remembered that because I cycle, I could use my one bit of exercise to ride round the parishes and keep in touch with people and pray. I remembered the stories of faith that have been sent to me to share on the website. I remember the blessing that I am here before the virus started so I can help people in their grief at funerals. I remembered that I have taken Weddings during the pandemic and the joy of seeing people married. I remembered that I’m here because God wants me here. God doesn’t want me to be someone else somewhere else: God just wants me to be me, here, now.

I remembered a list of 44 examples of the fruit of God’s work in my life, and I gave thanks. I would not have been able to do this without the time spent reflecting, looking back and my calendar and remembering. May I invite you to do the same today?

What are you thankful for?

After this service, take the time to look through your calendar since last October, since the last Harvest Festival, and remember what you are thankful for.

Statement of Faith

Do you believe and trust in God the Father,
source of all being and life,
the one for whom we exist?
We believe and trust.

Do you believe and trust in God the Son,
who took our human nature,
died for us and rose again?
We believe and trust.

Do you believe and trust in God the Holy Spirit,
who gives life to the people of God
and makes Christ known in the world?
We believe and trust.

This is the faith of the Church.
This is our faith.
We believe and trust in one God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Prayers of Intercession

If it will help, light a candle to represent our prayers, to shine a light in the world: a light of hope and not despair. A light to witness before God that we know we are not alone, those we love are not alone, and that we know God is with them.

You can light a virtual candle here on the Church of England website

We pray for growth in our Christian faith: in the knowledge and love of God, and that we will be drawn in to a closer relationship with God today. We pray for growth in our Church, for more people to be liberated by the love of God and to come to Church for God’s glory.

We hold before God the very real worries we have for those who are ill, with whatever condition, in mind body or spirit. We give thanks for all those who have dedicated themselves to helping others, and we remember those who we love but no longer see. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

The Peace

Although many of us are gathered in our homes
this physical distance is no distance to God
We may be apart, but we are gathered together and the Lord said:
‘Where two or three are gathered together in my name,’
there am I in the midst of them.’
The peace of the Lord be always with you
and also with you

The Eucharist

The Lord be with you
and also with you.

Lift up your hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give thanks and praise.

It is right to praise you, Father, Lord of all creation;
in your love you made us for yourself.

When we turned away
you did not reject us,
but came to meet us in your Son.
You embraced us as your children
and welcomed us to sit and eat with you.

In Christ you shared our life
that we might live in him and he in us.
He opened his arms of love upon the cross
and made for all the perfect sacrifice for sin.

On the night he was betrayed,
at supper with his friends
he took bread, and gave you thanks;
he broke it and gave it to them, saying:
Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you;
do this in remembrance of me.
Father, we do this in remembrance of him:
his body is the bread of life.

At the end of supper, taking the cup of wine,
he gave you thanks, and said:
Drink this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant,
which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins;
do this in remembrance of me.
Father, we do this in remembrance of him:
his blood is shed for all.

As we proclaim his death and celebrate his rising in glory,
send your Holy Spirit that this bread and this wine
may be to us the body and blood of your dear Son.
As we eat and drink these holy gifts
make us one in Christ, our risen Lord.

With your whole Church throughout the world
we offer you this sacrifice of praise
and lift our voice to join the eternal song of heaven, saying:
Holy, holy, holy Lord,
God of power and might,
Heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.

Lord’s Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.

We break this bread
to share in the body of Christ.
Though we are many, we are one body,
because we all share in one bread.

Agnus Dei

Lamb of God,
you take away the sin of the world,
have mercy on us.
Lamb of God,
you take away the sin of the world,
have mercy on us.
Lamb of God,
you take away the sin of the world,
grant us peace.

God’s holy gifts
for God’s holy people.
Jesus Christ is holy,
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

If you would like to eat a little bread at this point; reflect on the everlasting love of God, in Christ Jesus

Post Communion Prayer

Lord of the harvest,
with joy we have offered thanksgiving for your love in creation
and have shared in the bread and the wine of the kingdom:
by your grace plant within us a reverence for all that you give us and make us generous and wise stewards
of the good things we enjoy;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen

Almighty God,
we thank you for feeding us
with the body and blood of your Son Jesus Christ.
Through him we offer you our souls and bodies
to be a living sacrifice.
Send us out
in the power of your Spirit
to live and work
to your praise and glory.
Amen

The Blessing

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord; and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always.
Amen.

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.
In the name of Christ. Amen