St James The Great

​Old Milverton, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire

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Harvest Festival

Our Harvest Festival Service this year will be on Sunday 5 th October. As in recent years, we will be taking your food offerings to Lillington Foodbank so, whilst fresh foods are welcome, please consider bringing non-perishable foods on the day.

As we begin September, the Foodbank are currently short of tinned custard, tinned vegetables, multipack crisps, squash, shaving foam / gel, deodorants (male / female), razors, toothpaste and toothbrushes, and nappies size 6 & 7.

Our Harvest Lunch will follow the Harvest Festival Service on 5th October, in the Parish Room. Tickets are £15, payable on the day and there will be sign-up sheet at the back of church.

​Our next Muddy Church afternoon will be on Sunday September 28th at 3.00pm. Do think about joining us and please tell anyone else you know who might enjoy a practical afternoon out in the churchyard.

Dates for the autumn

I know it feels early to be thinking about December, but it will soon be here! Here are dates for some of the things happening between now and Christmas: put them in your diaries and come and join us. More details will follow over the coming months.

October 5th Harvest Festival Service & Lunch

October 18th Churchyard clearing morning

October 29th Coffee & Chat

November 2nd All Souls Service

November 9th Remembrance Sunday Service (10.45 start)

December 7th Hamper Raffle for African Vision Malawi

December 13th Churchyard clearing morning

December 16th 7.00pm Carol Service

December 21st 4.00pm Carols in the Churchyard

December 22nd 4.00 – 6.00pm Light a Candle Evening

Christmas Eve 10.30am Nativity Service

                     11.00pm Holy Communion for Christmas Night

Christmas Day 10.30 Holy Communion for all the family

Whilst we don’t tend to pray for people by name in our Sunday services, we also have a Prayer Team, made up of a group of church members to whom Sue sends an email most months with any prayer requests that we have received. Each person then includes those requests in their own prayers. Prayer really can make a difference, so if you would like to join in with this very important part of our church life, speak to Sue. Or, if you have someone you would like us to pray for, let Sue know.

Thought for the month: Sowing the seeds of faith

‘As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease’. (Genesis 8:22)

Isn’t that a re-assuring thought? As harvest time comes round once again, it’s time for us to say thank you, not just for food but for all the blessings that God gives us. But the harvest is only one part of the story. Someone had to plant the seeds in the first place for there to be a harvest. That thought led me to a lovely quote from Robert Louis Stevenson – ‘Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant’.

We all plant seeds – seeds of hope as we plan for the future; seeds of love as we care for our friends and families; seeds of faith as we hear and read God’s word and think about what they might mean for us.

My mum loved the hymn ‘Alleluia, alleluia, hearts to heaven and voices raise’. In many ways, it’s more about Easter and resurrection than harvest but as a country girl, she loved the image of being harvested in in the verse that says

‘that we, with our hearts in heaven,

here on earth may fruitful be,

and by angel-hands be gathered,

and be, ever, Lord, with thee’.

Throughout our lives, God sows seeds in us that hopefully will grow into ways of living that reflect his glory in our world, until the day comes when we too are part of the harvest and return to our eternal home.

He calls on us to sow seeds too, sharing our understanding of his goodness with others, inviting friends and family to come to know his presence in their lives, and sharing his love with those less fortunate than ourselves.

This September we shall once again be focusing our thoughts on the wonder of creation: may we recognise the importance of nurturing the seeds of faith within us and may we sow the seeds of God’s grace and love in others too.

With love, Sue

​May God who clothes the lilies of the field

and feeds the birds in the sky,

who leads the lambs to pasture

and the deer to water,

who multiplied loaves and fishes

and changed water into wine,

lead us, feed us, multiply us

and change us to reflect the glory of our Creator,

through all eternity.

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Clergy

Revd. William Smith      316475      wms.smith@btinternet.com

Revd. Sue Fairhurst      735254       sue@fairhursts.me.uk

Churchwardens

Michael Rayner       831522

Jane Marshall         831680

Website & email

www.stjamesoldmilverton.co.uk       churchwardenstjames@outlook.co

​​​Parish News​