Dear Brothers and Sisters

Earlier on this year I was at Ripon Cathedral for the Plough Sunday Service. It was a cracking afternoon. The Cathedral was full of farming families, we had all gathered beforehand to have a hot roast pork sandwich (with crackling, of course) and afterwards I got to have a look at a new John Deere tractor. I know that many of you will prefer other tractors but as they say ‘nothing runs like a Deere.’ Charlotte commented on the silly grin on my face as I had a good play on this beautiful machine. I didn’t mind as the old farmer next to me who was exploring it had the same look as well. Both of us were about 10 years old again, in our own minds at least, as we just enjoyed the moment. But what I remembered most about the service was the hymns. We sang the new version of ‘We plough the fields and scatter.’ Now, I am not usually a big fan of new hymn words but I make an exception here. Who wouldn’t like ‘we plough the fields with tractors, with drills we sow the land.’ As we sang it on that January afternoon I thought of how much I was going to enjoy singing it again during our Harvest services.

Well that was then. Another world really: crowding into a church and eating and drinking together, not a mask in sight and singing away with gusto. Like so many of you I really miss singing during worship and especially so during Harvest. Is a Harvest Thanksgiving without hymns, produce or a Harvest Supper even really a Harvest Thanksgiving? Yes. It is. Because we can still give thanks to God for all that he has given us, for the fruits of Creation. We can still give thanks to our Farming Community who have soldiered on this year to provide us with food and other produce. In this most difficult of times we can still give thanks for so much.

Being thankful is addictive. The more we give thanks, the more thankful we become. As we become more thankful we can see more clearly all that God is doing in our world and in our lives, and so we are even more thankful. Try it. This week look for one thing to be thankful for each day. By the end of the week see how thankful, how happy, how content you are. And then give thanks for that.

Sunday’s Readings

A Reading from the book of Deuteronomy

For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper. You shall eat your fill and bless the Lord your God for the good land that he has given you. Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God, by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I am commanding you today. When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid waste-land with poisonous snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock, and fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good. Do not say to yourself, ‘My power and the might of my own hand have gained me this wealth.’ But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today.                                          (8:7-18)

The Gospel according to Luke

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’ When he saw them, he said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, ‘Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’ Then he said to him, ‘Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.’                                                      (21:23-32)

Services next Sunday 11th October              

  • Leathley                           9.30am
  •  Fewston                           11am
  •  Weston                            2.30pm

Services for Sunday 18th October                 

  • Blubberhouses              9.30am
  •  Farnley                            11am
  •  Denton                             2.30pm

Annual Parochial Church Meetings: 18th October Denton and 25th October Leathley. Electoral Roll lists will be revised prior to these meetings. Please make sure you are on the appropriate roll.

Please remember in your prayers: Our Farmers, their families and all who work the land. The new Deacons and Priests being ordained in the Diocese this weekend. Those struggling at University. Our public health workers and all battling Covid19. Those facing further restrictions on their lives. Our Government and all who have hard decisions to make. The sick and the dying and those who care for and love them.

God bless you all.                                 

Stephen