Saint Paul's Church, Landkey
In Brief
Next Service:
27th September at 10:30 am.
Harvest Service
(Today we give thanks for this year's harvest.)
The next village event will be Gift Day on 26th September 2020 at 2:00 PM in St Paul's Church
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More ImagesService Times and Themes
Services are usually held in St Paul's Church at 10:30am on Sundays. Variations to this routine occur occasionally so we publish our services diary here to give more precise information. The services shown are those that we expect to take place during the next month.
Whenever a fifth Sunday falls within the month, our congregation joins with those of the other churches in our Mission Community for a service of united worship. The church in which this service is held is selected on a rotational basis.
During the Lockdown, when we were unable to hold services, we published here the Bible readings for each Sunday. Now that services are resuming, we will continue to display the Bible readings so that churchgoers can have access to the meaning behind the theme for each service. 30th July 2020.
Service Times | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date (2020) | Time | At | Type | Theme/Notes |
| 27th September | 10:30 am | St Paul, Landkey | Harvest Service | Today we give thanks for this year's harvest. |
| 4th October | 10:30 am | St Paul, Landkey | Morning Prayer | Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity |
| 11th October | 10:30 am | St Paul, Landkey | Morning Prayer | Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity |
Bible Readings | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date (2020) | First | Second | Gospel | Theme |
| 20th September | Exodus 16:2-15 | Philippians 1:21-30 | Matthew 20:1-16 | Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity |
| 27th September | Exodus 17:1-7 | Philippians 2:1-13 | Matthew 21:23-32 | Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity |
| 4th October | Exodus 20:1-4,7-9,12-20 | Philippians 3:4b-14 | Matthew 21:33-46 | Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity |
| 11th October | Exodus 32:1-14 | Philippians 4:1-9 | Matthew 22:15-22 | Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity |
Service Themes
Our services, like those organised in other churches, usually have a theme associated with them and the chosen theme is inspired often by the current date in the Christian calendar. Easter and Christmas are the two most notable dates in the Christian calendar but there are many more which we celebrate at the appropriate time. In the article below, we explain briefly the main theme that is featured in our listed services in order to help worshippers unfamiliar with Anglican services to better understand the meaning behind each one.
Service Themes
Harvest Festival
The most significant theme of our services during September 2019 will be that of offering thanks for the harvest that this season has produced.
Giving thanks for the produce of the land is a tradition which dates back in Britain to pre-Christian times when the success of the harvest had a big influence on people's lives. Saxon farmers offered the first-cut sheaf of wheat to their pagan god of fertility in order to safeguard a good harvest in the following year. The practice of making "corn dollies" from the harvested straw dates back to this era as they symbolised their goddess of the grain.
Some of these traditions continued after the arrival of Christianity in Britain and there were ceremonies before as well as after the harvest, and often church bells were rung on every day of the harvest.
Harvest Festival takes place on or near the date of the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox. This moon is commonly referred to as the Harvest Moon.
The modern-day tradition of celebrating Harvest Festival in churches began in 1843 when the Reverend Robert Hawker invited his parishioners to a special thanksgiving service at his church in Morwenstow in Cornwall. This led to the custom of decorating churches with donations of home-grown produce for the Harvest Festival service. (Source:www.crewsnest.vispa.com).
We will be celebrating Harvest Festival in this time-honoured fashion at St Paul's this month. Produce kindly donated by our parishioners will be arranged to best decorative effect in the church prior to our service on the 25th September. After the festival, the produce will be distributed to the poor and needy.