Dear Friends,

If you happen to have grown up in the church there are certain recurring patterns as we observe the seasons of the church’s year. Many speak to me of how they love the major festivals like Christmas and Easter. There is music and liturgies that we associate with those times and even though the ideas and concepts might be familiar ones to us, they seem to come alive in a fresh way every time we observe them.

Another such festival is Harvest Thanksgiving when we give thanks to God for the provision and blessing of the crops and produce of the earth. We think of the work of the church in terms of nurturing and sowing seeds of faith and seeing people find new life in Christ.

This month we look forward to our harvest services on 25th October. Our preacher in the morning will be Reverend Philip McKinley who is involved in a pioneer ministry in Clonmacnoise and Kildare Cathedral. If you would like to hear Philip share something of his journey of faith why not check out the podcast Bitesize Chunks of Faith, Episode 222. He’s a very creative and inspirational man who I have known since his teens and I think it will be the first occasion in our parish history where both a father and son have preached at our Harvest Thanksgiving. Philip’s father, Horace, who trained me as a student reader, came to preach at our Harvest Thanksgiving some years ago when he was Rector of Whitechurch parish in Dublin.

Our evening preacher is Reverend Lucy Burden from our neighbouring parish of Mount Merrion. Lucy is no stranger here having preached and shared on a number of occasions in a powerful way and we look forward to these two gifted speakers coming among us.

There will be a harvest supper after the evening Service in the Huston Hall.

Our Curate, Ryan has beeninvited to preach at Geashill in the Diocese of Meath and Kildare for their Harvest Thanksgiving and I have been invited to preach in Donagh and Tyholland with Errigal Truagh in Co. Monaghan for theirs. All of these Harvest services will take place in October.

We become increasingly conscious of how weather events and climate change are affecting harvests around the world.We are blessed to live in a part of the world where crops are harvested and our produce is internationally renowned. The heat and dryness of the summer however, has made harvest more of a challenge than in recent years and dairy farmers in particular have had to dip into stocks of silage for cattle as the grass and pasturelands have been scorched during the summer. We cannot ever take things like the harvest for granted.

During October we look forward also to a visit from the Leprosy Mission who will come to share about their important work through a visit from one of their staff and speaking team.

On the first Sunday in November we gather for our annual Service of Thanksgiving and Remembrance in which we give thanks for and remember those who have died from our parish family throughout the year. This very important service prepares us for the season of remembrance observed in November.

One of the vehicles we use during the autumn to sow and nurture seeds of faith in the lives of those who are curious, or who perhaps want to explore their faith in more depth, are informal courses. We have used The Alpha Course on quite a number of occasions, Hope Explored and this October we will be using a course written and facilitated by the renowned church leader and writer Tim Keller called The Reason for God. Ryan will be sharing a little about the course in this edition of the magazine and it begins on Wednesday 14th October at 7.30pm in the Coffee Bar. We’d love you to come along or invite a friend.

As mentioned in a recent invitation for our Community Fun Day in September, we have things for children and young people. We have things to keep you fit and active. We have things for creatives and things for those asking questions. We have things for those who like to sing, we have things for those who pray. We have things to nourish your soul. All of these things are up and running for our autumn programme and you will find details on the church website www.stfinnians.org. We would love you to come and be part of what’s going on here.

With very best wishes,

Jonathan Pierce (Rector)

Telephone 02890 793822