Today is the shortest day in the northern hemisphere. The winter solstice takes place at 5.11 pm today.
Please have your gongs, whistles and drums at the ready for the moment.
Photo credit – Andreas Krappweis
Knitted food patterns…
http://www.knitfish.com/12/
I really appreciated the Lammastide sermon and service. But I’m not sure if I said so at the time – probably not!
I’m reminded how important it is to share appreciation as well as (more than!) criticism. Perhaps a new year’s resolution in the making.
Harvest.
Autumn is here
and there is no harvest
The trees have leaves but no fruit
The wheat has ears but no grain
and if you should return
I wouldn’t know
how to begin to explain
I would offer you a gift
but of all the things I own
all I have is my sin
all I have that’s mine alone
Spare me – I pray
another year or two
if you will extend your hand
I will fill a harvest basket for you
I have laboured in these fields
among this bracken, broom and whin
and a lifetime to understand
all you wanted was my sin.
Ah, the Grauniad! No – I only see that when I’m in a primary school staff-room, and never had the time to open it.
But cute pattern – might be the next addition to the Choir dog collection.
Over here in the U.S. we have our national Thanksgiving Day (when very few actually go to church) designated to celebrate the harvest, peace and an end to civil strife, and general thanksgiving. Perhaps the UK needs to take a page from the U.S. and Canada and just make it an official government holiday!
But what I was taught in school was that the first Thanksgiving was held in imitation of the traditional Harvest celebrations back home in England. Perhaps these were not actual church services? Anyhow I’m now confused!
Incidentally, from a sample of 13 comments made on my photo of a harvest display in church, I deduce people’s expectations include:
a) it’s long-life products, tinned or pasta, that one brings
b) giving them to old dears who don’t really need them
c) it’s something relegated to childhood memories
Up to you where you draw the churchy/non-churchy line amongst that lot. Maybe it means there’s a *lot* of scope for a message of mission (to folks who normally exist outside the door) and ethics?
Oh, thank you for asking. I’ve recently finished Be Near Me by Andrew O’Hagan. It is a dark read, but a worthwhile one. Fr David arrives in an Ayrshire Roman Catholic parish, with unresolved issues from his past which unravel with a sadness, a poignancy and an apparent inevitability. It is the inevitability which is…
Now, I still think the wiki thing is going to be big, but people still don’t get it. Congregational wiki? Church unconference anyone? If you don’t know what I’m talking about, see this video: [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY]
I was asked earlier this week whether or not there was a network of bloggers within the Church of Scotland akin to the Scottish Episcopal Blog Posse. I’m not sure that there is. Can anyone point me to persons blogging about the Church of Scotland? (And I don’t mean Episcopalians, I mean those who belong…
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