Harvest

I think that it is very appropriate that we are at the time of the year when we think about Harvest. The Welsh word used by the Church for Harvest is Diolchgarwch. This means Thanksgiving.

We really do have so much to be thankful for, even in this pandemic. The efforts of so many people have helped us to get through – from the National Health Service, Food suppliers, Farmers, Shopkeepers, Horticulturalists, Distributors, Scientists, Post men and women and many more. Make a list and give thanks to God for them all.

It is good that we are beginning to meet once more in church to worship. Let us hope that it continues.

Edrychwn o’n hamgylch a gwelwn fel y mae Duw yn llywodraethu’r bydysawd, yn ddirgel yn myd Natur. Mae’r byd yn dweud am ei ddaioni, a’r coed a’r blodau yn sôn am ei harddwch. Ac am hynny, byddwn yn ddiolchgar.

Y mae yno lawer o bobl yn dioddef o’r gwahan-glwyf y sonnir amdanynt yn y Testament Newydd, y naw na ddaethant yn ôl i rhoi diolch i’r Iesu am gael iachad. Dim ond un a ddaeth yn ôl i ddiolch.

Y mae Duw yn rhoddi yn hael i ni, a ninnau’n aml môr anniolchgar.

Harvest takes on a new meaning this year when we think of Global Warming and the Pandemic and when we think about the relationship between the world’s Faiths, Conservation and Ecology. We cannot go on abusing Nature. Many scientists are relating this abuse to the rise in pandemics and the destruction of the earth, on which we all depend.

We need to be thankful but we also need to be better stewards of the bounty that this earth provides.

Let us, this Harvest time, even if we cannot gather in church, (perhaps we will) thank God for all the material, physical and spiritual blessings that we have received this year.

The following hymn is by Henry Alford (1810-71)

Come, ye thankful people come

raise the song of harvest-home:

all is safely gathered in ere the winter storms begin;

God our Maker doth provide for our wants to be supplied:

come to God’s own temple come, raise the song of harvest home!

Come then Lord of mercy, come, bid us sing thy harvest home:

let thy saints be gathered in, free from sorrow, free from sin: all upon the golden floor

praising thee for evermore: come, with all thy angels come, bid us sing thy harvest -home.

Cyfeithiad gan D.R.Thomas

Chwi ddiolchgar bobl, dewch, mewn sain moliant llawenhewch;

Caed y cnwd mewn addas hin, cyn ystormydd gaeaf blin;

Duw a drefnodd yn ddi-baid i gyflewni eich holl raid:

Dewch, O dewch i’w deml lân, cyd-ddyrchefwch iddo gân.

Maes i godi ffrwyth i Dduw, clod a mawl a diolch gwiw,

Ydwy’r ddaear- ynddi mae yd ac efrau wedi’u hau

Pan aeddfedro’r had ar awr ddwys yr atgyfodiad mawr mawr,

Arglwydd bywyd, gad i ni Fod yn sanctaidd gnwd i ti.

A prayer from Prayers for the World Ed by Dick Williams

God of the seasons, who for us in the west always sends the harvest, your words must sound hollow to those in the drought- stricken areas of Africa, or the flooded plains of Asia. When they pray: “Give us this day our daily bread,” why don’t you answer? Why do you allow your children to starve? Is it reasonable to provide the resources, then expect us to distribute them? God of the seasons, pour your love into our hearts, that we may begin to care enough to share your resources with all people. Amen

Collects for the harvest:

Almighty and everlasting God, who crownest the year with thy goodness, and hast given us the fruits of the earth in their season: give us, we beseech thee, grateful hearts, that we may rightly use thy gifts to thy glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Hollalluog a thragwyddol Dduw, sy’n coroni’r flwyddyn â’th ddaioni, ac yn rhoddi inni ffrwythau’r ddaear yn eu tymor: dyro i ni galonnau diolchgar, fel y defnyddiwn dy rhoddion yn unol â’th ewyllys; twy Isu Grist ein Harglwydd. Amen