Harvest Supper & Harvest Festival
There will be a Harvest Supper next month in the Church Hall on Saturday 14th October, a sign up list will appear in church later this month.
The tradition of celebrating Harvest Festival in churches as we know it today began in 1843, when the Reverend Robert Hawker invited parishioners to a special thanksgiving service for the harvest at his church at Morwenstow in Cornwall.
Victorian hymns such as "We plough the fields and scatter", "Come ye thankful people, come" and "All things bright and beautiful" helped popularise his idea of harvest festival and spread the annual custom of decorating churches with home-grown produce for the Harvest Festival service.
In Stoke we are not perhaps as aware of the harvest as those who live in more rural areas. However it is important that we give thanks to God for the harvest and all those who work to provide our food and we remember those less fortunate than we are.
We will give thanks for the Harvest on Sunday 15th October, donations of tins and dry food and toiletries will be given to the Salvation Army for their work at the hostel with the homeless.
