St Luke’s Harvest Festival celebration with a Parade of Uniformed groups was held in the morning service on Sunday 6th October
Donations of non-perishable food were collected for Watford Foodbank and New Hope and the offertory supported the Bishop of St Alban’s Harvest Appeal, a project in Sri Lanka which provides those affected by leprosy with the means to grow their own food and raise their standard of living.
The theme for the service was Do not worry! based on Luke 12:22-31 and included a play. Our resident actors, Kate and Chris, worried about what to wear and what food to buy, the smaller children enthusaistically played the part of ravens and flowers of the field and a voice out of nowhere told us how futile our worrying is: “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?” (Luke 12:25).
Following on from the play, Neil Brookes, Youth Director, defined worry as going over and over in our minds things that we can’t do anything about. Neil gave several reasons why worry is bad for us, including that it’s like a shadow, casting darkness over our lives and it’s like an inflating balloon, obscuring our vision. We were encouraged to shift our focus away from the things that worry us towards God in order to bring things back into perspective. Instead of worrying we were urged to think about the food, family and friends that God has blessed us with, and God’s deep love for us.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to the service, especially Neil for sharing his spiritual wisdom, playwrite Pam Norman, and the team who decorated the church.
Yvonne Wilder