Hunsdon Church is situated in the heart of what was once one of Henry VIII’s country parks and what remains today an area of picturesque countryside with its rolling fields, pockets of woodlands and the river snaking along the parish’s southern border. Whilst most of us travel to the supermarkets in the towns to do our shopping, we are surrounded by constant reminders that the land is the source of our food. The fields all around the village are always changing as the year progresses and the seasons come and go. In the summer, the farmers and their contractors are busy at all times of day and night lifting beet crops and harvesting the oilseed rape and various grains that were planted months before.
One of the classic harvest hymns declares, “All is safely gathered in ‘ere the winter storms begin,” and in keeping with this, we usually celebrate the harvest with a special service in church on the second Sunday of October (long after the harvest is finished nowadays!). We pray for the farmers and all who are involved in getting our food from the fields to our homes and we celebrate God’s generosity in the fruits of the land. We are also mindful of the needs of the poor, both locally and globally. Through the year, our Foodbank supports those in need in our village, and at our Harvest Festival service, we take a collection for the work of TEARfund which is a Christian development charity which works all over the world to support people facing droughts or floods or other difficulties and the related poverty and insecurity that these bring.
We hope you will be able to join us as we celebrate the beauty and abundance of God’s creation and consider our own responsibilities in caring for it and in sharing our blessings with those in need.
Harvest 2024
This year we are doing something different – we’re joining with the other parishes in the benefice to celebrate Harvest on 29th September and holding a collection for the Bishop’s Harvest Appeal. The service will be at 10:30am at Widford Church. We hope you will be able to join us.