Throcking
Harvest Thanksgiving
The Harvest Festival was celebrated at Throcking Church on Sunday last.
The Church had been tastefully decorated by members of the congregation, and there was an abundance of fruit, flowers and vegetables. In the altar window was a miniature stack of corn.
All the services were well attended, the Church being full for the evening service.
The Rector (the Rev. A.L. Panchaud), delivered appropriate sermons. It was, he said, the first sermon in connection with a Harvest Festival that he had preached at Throcking since 1923, as in the past two festivals he had invited neighbouring clergy to the service.
There was no reference in the Prayer Book to any special form of service for the thanksgiving of harvest, and this was a great mistake. It was our duty to thank God for the gifts of summer. We plough the fields and sow the seed but it is fed and watered by God's Almighty hand.
It had been said that many people only went to Church on the occasion of a harvest festival, and while there might be an attraction in the decorated Church and the special hymns and prayers, he thought that those who attended the services really did so with a spirit of thanksgiving to God for His blessings.
Miss Beadle, of Cottered, who has been organist at the Church for over 30 years, presided at the organ, and the jubilant harvest hymns were sung with much fervour.
The collections came to over £3.