Harvest Time 2020

posted 1 Oct 2020, 10:57 by All Saints' Highfield
 
On the first Sunday of October, we will be able to thank God for all the blessings of the Harvest. In these strange times, I hope many of us will be comforted by the Harvest Festival service and the sense it brings of the enduring cycle of the seasons and of God’s bounteous gifts.

When a small group of us discussed what to do for the Festival, we felt it important to try to replicate our longstanding traditions, so the service will reflect those. We also decided to continue with the custom of decorating the church with the fruit and vegetables and then distributing them to the housebound members of the congregation. Because of the COVID-19 situation, we have to take stringent hygiene precautions and below is the programme we have worked out.

Saturday 3rd October
  • The church will be open from 10.00 am to 11.30 am for members to bring their gifts. 
  • Please bring the gifts in plastic bags (which you have left empty for a few days) and leave them in the South Porch. 
  •  A group of helpers will bring them into the main church and arrange them. We will all be wearing gloves to reduce any risk of infection. 
  •  Please give as generously as you can and please don’t bring things on Sunday morning as this will cause congestion and mean we cannot fulfil the 2 metre distancing requirement.
If Saturday morning is difficult for you, please ring me (07852 338852) and we can try to make some other arrangement.

Monday 5th October
  • The church will again be open from 10.00 am to 11.30 am. 
  • A group of helpers will fill bags ready for distribution in the parish. 
  • The group working on this will again be limited to six to comply with government guidelines. 
  • If you are able to help deliver items, please let me know.
You may feel that these arrangements are over-elaborate but, as the latest guidelines from the Diocese reminds us, ‘Safe practice is not optional. It is crucial that every parish follows the spirit as well as the letter of the regulations and guidance now in place’. Please help us to do this.

Catherine Hodgkinson 
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