Epiphany, Crestview, to hold a Harvest Thanksgiving Service and English Tea on October 3, 2010

Submitted by Nancy Delierre, Coastline Communicator
Epiphany, Crestview

Join the parishioners of Epiphany, Crestview for a Harvest Thanksgiving Service on October 3, 2010. The church feels that during these hard times it would be a wonderful idea to start a Harvest Thanksgiving tradition in the diocese.

The Harvest Thanksgiving Service is a combination of two English feasts. The older of the two is the Lamma, or Loaf Mass, held on August first as a thanksgiving for the first grain crops from the wheat harvest becoming available. Newly baked loaves from the wheat harvest were presented before God within the Mass of that day.

The newer feast was adapted from Lammas in 1843 by the Reverend R. S. Hawker, who at the time, was a parish priest in Cornwall in South Western England. He chose the first Sunday in October as a Christian response to the traditional but secular Harvest Home Celebration. This service is a Eucharist with an act of thanksgiving that is accompanied by the tradition of the congregation bringing gifts of fresh produce and breads. This annual church celebration of the harvest spread rapidly and was first recognized by the Church of England in 1862.

The October 3rd Harvest Thanksgiving service at Epiphany is open to everyone not only in Crestview, but in the entire diocese. Everyone is encouraged to bring fresh fruits, vegetables and breads, all of which will be blessed during the service and given to Sharing and Caring for distribution the following week.

Following the service, the English ladies of Epiphany, supported by all the ladies of Epiphany, will serve a traditional English Tea: sandwiches, cakes, scones, sausage rolls, English biscuits and, of course, pots and pots of hot English tea.