This article will appear between 2 traditional agricultural festivals. In May we celebrate Rogation when we ask God’s blessing on the growing crops. At Lammas, in July, we give thanks for the beginning of the harvest, blessing the first loaves the summer has produced. Both these occasions are marked by special barn services on local farms.
Most people in this country, however, would not have the faintest idea what Rogation or Lammas Sunday is. We have become so profoundly disconnected from the farming year, and from where our food comes from, and we have been able to take generous food supplies and wide availability for granted.
The word ‘Rogation’, which comes from the Latin ‘to ask’, is a word ‘left over’ from earlier times when it was understood that farming was essential to the life of any community; from centuries when people were all too aware of how easily a change in weather at the wrong stage in the growing season, never mind a disruptive war or outbreak of disease, could threaten famine rather than feast.
In our own increasingly uncertain era, perhaps we ought to reclaim this sense of our need both to ask and to give thanks, because by doing so we stop taking things for granted; we realise that we do not automatically have a right to whatever we want and acknowledge that all the power is not in our own hands. To ‘ask’ makes me recognise that I will not always receive. To ‘give thanks’ reminds me to appreciate how much I have.
It is especially important that we learn a new humility in terms of our treatment of our planet – not endlessly demanding more and more resources from our world, but treating the soil, air and water with the respect they deserve, and need, if life for us all is to be sustained. It is also vital that we stop expecting more and more from our farms and farmers, for less and less remuneration, taking for granted the crucial part they play in the life of our nation.
So, I warmly invite you to join us for our Lammas Service at 11.00am on Sunday 26th July, at Sands Farm, Sands Lane, Donhead St Andrew, SP7 9LL. It is a precious opportunity to celebrate nature’s gifts, to give thanks for the work of our farmers, and to remind ourselves not to take for granted the good things upon which all our lives depend.
Revd Kate McFarlane
