We come to the first Sunday in October and our Harvest Festival, happily combined with our Family Service. The decorators had been hard at work and the church was resplendent with flowers and produce. The traditional Harvest hymns were sung and during the Offertory gifts were bought to the alter, starting with gifts from a farmer, a small holder and a gardener as shown in the photographs.

The children did a small presentation and Father Roger gave a short impromptu address. 

During Communion the Choir sang 'Thou Visitest the Earth' by Maurice Green, Dr Platts sang the solo introduction beautifully.

After the service there was coffee in the rooms.

In the afternoon we had our Harvest Tea in the Church Hall. A traditional Sidlesham Tea, for which we are renound!!   A fiendishly difficult quiz, set by Dr Platts, was won by the church warden's table. Father Roger said grace  and after we had eaten sandwiches and cakes and drunk lots of tea, we sang some old favourites from the last night of the Proms accompanied on the flute  by Dr Platts.

A splendid afternoon greatly appreciated!

We will have Father Luke, the Archdeacon with us again next week.

 1 Timothy 6:6-10

A reading from the first letter of Paul to Timothy.

There is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; 

for we brought nothing into the world, 

so that we can take nothing out of it; 

but if we have food and clothing, 

we will be content with these. 

But those who want to be rich fall into temptation 

and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires 

that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, 

and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith 

and pierced themselves with many pains.

Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew.

Jesus said to his disciples,

 “Do not worry about your life, 

what you will eat or what you will drink,

or about your body, what you will wear. 

Is not life more than food, 

and the body more than clothing? 

Look at the birds of the air; 

they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, 

and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. 

Are you not of more value than they? 

And can any of you by worrying 

add a single hour to your span of life?

And why do you worry about clothing? 

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; 

they neither toil nor spin, 

yet I tell you, 

even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, 

which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, 

will he not much more clothe you—

you of little faith? 

Therefore do not worry, 

saying, ‘What will we eat?’ 

or ‘What will we drink?’ 

or ‘What will we wear?’ 

For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; 

and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 

But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, 

and all these things will be given to you as well.

Apologies as this is taken from notes during the address, not his actual words.

During the previous inter-regnum, some wit provided an "hour glass" which ran for 10 minutes as it was thought my sermons were too long.  However, a server would quietly turn it over for me.

Today is Harvest Thanksgiving. Obviously we give thanks for crops, our food, but also other plants which we just enjoy looking at, our gardens.  This is the same for animals, we have the source of our meat, but also out pets.  My first parish was in Lancashire in the 70s. As well as the mountains of potatoes, there would also be coal and salt to remind us of things that come out of the ground. Fish are another gift from God from the sea. We wear wool, cotton, from God's bounty. The building over us is made from wood from trees and stone from the ground.  If it wasn't for all of the natural stuff around us we would be here with no clothes, no food and no building. 

We are not too different from the animals.  God wants us to be a good crop. We are meant to be God's gift to each other.