Prayer for Lammastide Heavenly Father, the earth is yours and the harvests are your bounty. We pray for our arable farmers in this year of extreme weather. We pray for our dairy farmers with supermarkets forcing the price of milk down and with bovine TB in some parts of the country. We ask your blessing on the harvest and on all who work in farming. We ask that farmers facing difficult times may know your love and our support. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Taken from a Service by Bishop of Peterborough, Donald Allister for Farm Crisis Network (FCN) Reproduced with permission You can find the full FCN reflection on Lammas (from 21/07/2012) at www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=449713295049357&id=217750274912328 or see below
The Farming Community Network 21 July 2012 FCN is calling on churches and individuals to pray for the farming community affected by the weather and milk price cuts. At Lammas tide, which on August 1st, it is traditional to take a loaf, made from the first grain of the harvest season, to be blessed in church and to ask for God s blessing on the ensuing harvest. This loaf is then used to celebrate communion. Given the extremes of weather experienced in the Spring and early Summer this year, it is unlikely that any farmer will be in a position to harvest any crops by this date. Early in the year while the talk was of drought conditions and hosepipe bans, many crops started to suffer from lack of moisture, then we experienced unprecedented and near continuous rainfall for several months. Week after week we have heard of new records for high rainfall being established; for the majority of us this has simply been inconvenient while others have suffered dreadfully through repeated flooding. For our farmers, who toil all year long to provide us with the food we need, it can mean disaster. Mild and wet conditions are ideal for the growth of fungi which attack crops and potentially devastate the yield. This leads to a difficult and potentially poor harvest with grain prices on the increase. Sadly, good harvest weather is not in sight as yet, so this is of little comfort. In the meantime, high grain prices are pushing up feed prices for livestock farmers, who are also suffering at the hands of the weather. Thousands of stock-farmers had to bring their animals back indoors to prevent them damaging valuable grazing land in the wet conditions. Because of this, many are obliged to feed their animals with costly winter forage or costly bought in feed and with haymaking badly hampered until the weather improves, there is little prospect of being able to replenish those stocks before this coming winter. Without such reserves, many are very worried about the welfare of their animals in the cold months to come. On top of all this, we see dairy farmers, many of whom are already trying to cope with the devastation of bovine tuberculosis among their herds, having to contend with draconian price cuts for their milk, bringing them to a level, which for many is totally unsustainable. There is a very real likelihood of many dairy farmers simply going out of business. Farming has always been a risky business and farmers are well used to managing those risks. This year, however, is proving to be quite exceptional, bringing with it concerns of a much greater magnitude than normal. When these worries are amplified by the isolation of rural living and the sense of neglect felt by many farmers, increasing pressures can prove too much, sometimes resulting in tragic and devastating consequences. So this Lammas tide, take a moment to consider the plight of our farmers and their families. They have the burden of feeding the nation while managing and caring for our countryside in such difficult circumstances. Farm Crisis Network is calling for a day of prayer on Sunday July 29th for our farming community who everyday face the consequences of this terrible weather and who often pay a much higher price than the consumers of their production. The Right Reverend Donald Allister, Bishop of Peterborough, who is also an FCN Trustee, has composed the following prayer:
Heavenly Father, the earth is yours and the harvests are your bounty. We pray for our arable farmers in this year of extreme weather. We pray for our dairy farmers with supermarkets forcing the price of milk down and with bovine TB in some parts of the country. We ask your blessing on the harvest and on all who work in farming. We ask that farmers facing difficult times may know your love and our support. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Thank you for your support of the farming community, especially at this difficult time. Farm Crisis Network is available to provide practical and pastoral support to anyone in the farming community. FCN s national helpline operates from 7.00am to 11.00 pm every day of the year: 0845 367 9990
Alternative Lammas Prayers There is a time for working and a time for resting, a time for ploughing and a time for sowing, a time for dressing and a time for harvesting, there is a time for lambing and a time for culling, a time for the byre, a time for the field and a time for the harvest, a time for the getting, a time for the giving and a time for God. Indeed all times are His. O Lord, our governor, how excellent is your name in this world. You have set your glory above the heavens. We shall eat the labours of our hands. O well are we and happy shall we be. Glory to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit As it was in the beginning, is now and shall be forever. Amen A field of wheat, ripening, ruffled by the summer wind, gilded by the sun is something beautiful to the eye, promises a valuable harvest and bread to eat. Praise the Lord, O my soul, all that is within me praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. A bed of strawberries, the first and largest fruit ripening, is a lovely sight, promising a feast and a profit. Praise the Lord, O my soul, all that is within me praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. A Lamb, plump about the tail, well grown, ready for the market, is a pleasing thing, promising good food and bills paid. Praise the Lord, O my soul, all that is within me praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. We are tempted to forget the maker and take all the best for ourselves and our own. Create in me a clean heart O God. And put a new and right spirit within me. We are tempted to say it was I and my hand that was responsible for this wonderful thing. Create in me a clean heart O God. And put a new and right spirit within me. We are tempted to eat and not be satisfied as though one could never have enough of such good things. Create in me a clean heart O God. And put a new and right spirit within me.
It is an excellent thing to give the first and best to another and through him to God. The first loaf, the first Lamb, the first strawberry, the first fruit. Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed one another. It is an excellent thing to recognise the needs of others: the poor, the stranger, the birds of the air. Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed one another. It is an excellent thing to observe temperance in all things, and to recognise that man does not live by bread alone. Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed one another. Yes, the Lord shall show loving kindness. And our land shall give her increase. Righteousness shall go before him. And we shall direct our footsteps in his way. Confession There is a time for working and a time for resting, a time for ploughing and a time for sowing, a time for dressing and a time for harvesting, there is a time for lambing and a time for culling, a time for the byre, a time for the field and a time for the harvest, a time for the getting, a time for the giving and a time for God. Indeed all times are His. As we celebrate your goodness So we confront our own sin. Our greed and insensitivity Our failure to appreciate what we have And the opportunities you have given. Our readiness to complain, Our unwillingness to praise. Father, Forgive and renew us. Food taken for granted, Work and effort unappreciated and poorly rewarded, Self-centred blindness to other s needs. Deliberate deafness to the cries of the hungry, Coldness of heart to those deprived of affection, Father, Forgive and renew us. A landscape threatened, and an economy at risk. A countryside disheartened, Its communities uncertain and confused.
Its isolation and exclusion ignored. Father, Forgive and renew us. May our sins be forgiven, Our blindness, deafness and coldness of heart be healed. May your renewing Spirit rest upon us And fill our nation with your love and hope. In Jesus Name. Amen Taken from a service kindly produced by Reverend Alan Norkett Benefice of Shrawley, Witleys, Astley & Abberley, Diocese of Worcester The Presentation of the Lammas Loaf Brothers and sisters in Christ, the people of God in ancient times presented to the Lord an offering of first-fruits as a sign of their dependence upon God for their daily bread. At this Lammastide, we bring a newly baked loaf as our offering in thanksgiving to God for his faithfulness. Jesus said, I am the bread of life; those who come to me shall never be hungry and those who believe in me shall never thirst. John 6.35 The Lammas loaf is brought to the president. Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation; you bring forth bread from the fields and give us the fruits of the earth in their seasons. Accept this loaf, which we bring before you, made from the harvest of your goodness. Let it be for us a sign of your fatherly care. Blessed are you, Lord our God, worthy of our thanksgiving and praise. Blessed be God for ever. Collect Let your merciful ears, O Lord, be open to the prayers of your humble servants; and that they may obtain their petitions make them to ask such things as shall please you; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Prayers of intercession Heavenly Father, the earth is yours and the harvests are your bounty. We pray for our arable farmers in this year of extreme weather. We pray for our dairy farmers with supermarkets forcing the price of milk down and with bovine TB in some parts of the country.
We ask your blessing on the harvest and on all who work in farming. We ask that farmers facing difficult times may know your love and our support. Lord of Lammastide, in your mercy; Hear our prayer. Lord, your works are wonderful, in wisdom you have made them all. Forgive us for the madness that abuses the earth for short term ends, And give us the wisdom, to cherish and share with daring and delight the abundant gifts of our fragile planet. Lord of Lammastide, in your mercy; Hear our prayer. O God, you have made us creatures of this earth, hungry and thirsty and needy, that you might satisfy all our longing with your abundant love. Satisfy the hunger of our bodies for food and shelter, health and human touch. Satisfy the hunger of our spirits for dignity and freedom in giving and receiving. Satisfy the hunger of our minds to understand our world, the reasons for its pain, the ways we are connected to each other. Satisfy the hunger of our hearts that all who share this loving earth with us shall share our satisfaction. And satisfy the hunger of our hands to make it so. Lord of Lammastide, in your mercy; Hear our prayer A poem Enriching the earth by Wendell Berry for silent reflection; To enrich the earth I have sowed clover and grass to grow and die. I have plowed in the seeds of winter grains and various legumes, their growth to be plowed in to enrich the earth. I have stirred into the ground the offal and the decay of the growth of past seasons and so mended the earth and made its yield increase. All this serves the dark. Against the shadow of veiled possibility my workdays stand in a most asking light. I am slowly falling into the fund of things. And yet to serve the earth, not knowing what I serve, gives a wideness and a delight to the air, and my days do not wholly pass. It is the mind's service, for when the will fails so do the hands and one lives at the expense of life. After death, willing or not, the body serves, entering the earth. And so what was heaviest and most mute is at last raised up into song. Prayer As the grains of wheat once scattered on the hill were gathered into one to become our bread; So may all your people from all the ends of earth, be gathered into one in you.
As this cup of blessing is shared within our midst may we share the presence of your love. Let this be a fore-taste of all that is to come when all creation shares this feast with you. Breaking the bread Bread broken: one loaf but many pieces, a meal for us. Bread broken: divided that we might share it, wholeness destroyed that we might be joined together. Bread broken: a sign of Christ's body, broken for us that we might live. Invitation to Communion Here is the table of the Lord, we are gathered to his supper, a foretaste of things eternal. Come, when you are fearful, to be made new in love. Come, when you are doubtful, to be made strong in faith. Come, when you are regretful, and be made whole. Come, old and young, there is room for all. Blessing May God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the source of all goodness and growth, pour his blessing upon all things created, and upon you his children, that you may use his gifts to his glory and the welfare of all peoples; and the blessing Dismissal Tend the earth, care for God s good creation, and bring forth the fruits of righteousness. Go in the peace of Christ. Thanks be to God. Taken from a service by The Wkyeham Benefice