Welcome to Weobley & Staunton Joint Benefice

I was raised in the bustling city of Sydney, far from the farms of western NSW. However, every year our family would celebrate Harvest Festival in April (mid-autumn in the Southern Hemisphere) and visit the Sydney Easter Show. There we marvelled at massive displays of fruits, vegetables and cereals, assembled on a large stage, to portray a rural landscape. There would be hills made of green apples, a sun made of wheat, clouds of cotton, farmhouses made of pumpkins and gourds, fields made from coloured fruits and even kangaroos and wombats shaped from brown nuts.

We all have memories of the harvest celebrations we enjoyed as child. The harvest festival service reminds us to give thanks for all those people involved in agriculture and food         production who work so tirelessly, day in and day out, to bring food to our tables. We are also reminded that it’s only through the cycle of the seasons, and the hand of God, that we are fed.

While most people in the developed world enjoy the fruits of the harvest for a reasonable price, there are many in the world who work in fields or factories from dawn until dusk but who are enslaved by debt, undernourished and deal with grinding poverty. The World Bank estimates that at least one in ten of the global population currently lives under the poverty line of US $3 a day. They are unable to taste the benefit of the harvest, simply because of the circumstances into which they were born.

One of the key commands given in the book of Leviticus regarding harvest time states:

When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands (Leviticus 23:22).

As we give thanks at harvest time, let’s also remember to pray for and provide something from our bounty to those organisations working to bring hope and economic justice to those who are in need.

Reverend Philip

In February 2021 the Christian aid and development agency Tear Fund commissioned a survey of young people which found that 9 out of 10 Christian teenagers in the UK were concerned about climate change, but only one in 10 believed their church was doing enough to respond to the climate crisis. The survey also revealed that 86 per cent of the teenagers said their faith teaches them to care about climate injustice. Since then, the Church of England has launched a comprehensive environmental policy and programme which is focused on enabling churches to think more deeply about how they care for the environment through faith, practice and mission. This includes tackling carbon emissions, aiming for net zero carbon by 2030.* It is good to see our local churches responding to this.

One of the great dangers in considering climate change is that we can feel overwhelmed by the unrelenting reports of climate-induced disasters around the globe and consider that we are powerless to do anything. But there are multiple initiatives underway to slow down and address the impact of climate change: flood remediation and the creation of extensive wetlands that slow down run-off; large-scale planting of trees such as in the Sahel region of North Africa to prevent desertification; the restoration and renewal of sea grass along coastlines and peat bogs in hills that act as carbon sinks. We need to keep supporting and praying for the success of such initiatives.

We might also consider how even one small action we take can make a difference, such as planting a single oak tree. If this tree lives to maturity it will eventually capture, every year, around 22 kg (kilograms) of carbon dioxide. If it lives 400-500 years that’s a significant amount of C02! Our faith teaches us to bear responsibility for this world that God has freely given us to enjoy and protect. In the face of all the gloom, despair and apathy around us, let us choose to think globally but act locally. As St Paul encourages us, ‘Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, and be constant in prayer’ (Romans 12:12).

Rev’d Philip

*More information about this programme can be found at https://www.churchofengland.org/about/church-england-environment-programme