Harvest Thanksgiving, the Prayer Book, and Autumn days

Early October. The colours of Autumn can be seen. Leaves begin to fall. The days are shortening. And yesterday it was Harvest Thanksgiving in the parish. Beginning in September, increasing in early- and mid-October, with some found here and there in late-October, many churches across these Islands have observed or will observe Harvest Thanksgiving. The Sundays of mid-Autumn, then, ring out with the collect of harvest, "we yield thee humble and hearty thanks for this thy bounty"; with the singing of 'Come, ye thankful people, come'; and with the words of Deuteronomy, "When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee".

It is a time of year I particularly enjoy. The evocative colours of Autumn, the mists and the apples, the colder mornings and early evening sunsets, the chestnuts and pumpkins: it is a time to give thanks for the richness and bounty of the year.

It is also fitting to give thanks during this fall of the year, as another year of earthly life draws closer to its passing. Another Summer has gone, another harvest has been gathered in. Soon it will be the stark time of Remembrance, then the days of Advent and the festive season. It is good to give thanks now, in these October days, amidst the falling leaves, for the goodness and mercy of God over another year.

For those of us who are Anglicans, the words of the Book of Common Prayer bring us, year by year, to this season. Each time the Litany has been offered throughout the year, we have prayed for a good harvest:

That it may please thee to give and preserve to our use the kindly fruits of the earth, so as in due time we may enjoy them, We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.

The "kindly fruits of the earth". Cranmer could have simply said 'fruits of the earth'. 'Kindly', however, draws us to receive such fruits as the gifts of God's grace and goodness. In the words of the Psalmist, "that he may bring food out of the earth, and wine that maketh glad the heart of man" - "so as in due time we may enjoy them". And now is that "due time", with the "kindly fruits of the earth" of the harvest decorating the parish church.

For many of us, the General Thanksgiving will be offered weekly across the year: 

We bless thee for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for thine inestimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. 

And so weekly on the Lord's Day we give thanks for our creation and our redemption. We also wisely set aside particular times for to rejoice in our redemption: in the great festivals of the Christian year, the days observing the Lord's Nativity, His Passion, Resurrection, Ascension, and the Descent of the Holy Ghost. It is meet and right that a time should then be appointed when we give solemn thanks for the created order and the blessings bestowed upon us in it and through it. The recent attempt to establish Creationtide is rather too ideological and abstract for this purpose. Harvest, by contrast, roots us in the land, its fruits, and its seasons; it unites us to those who have gone before us, who gave thanks for the harvest in our parish churches; and it draws upon a rich, resonant seam of piety which has evolved to mark this observance.

That for which we give thanks, week by week, in the General Thanksgiving, therefore, has a focus in Harvest Thanksgiving, as we rejoice, amidst the richness of Autumn, in the grace and goodness of the Triune God in "our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life".

The Church of Ireland BCP 2004, following BCP 1926, provides a prayer for the Rogation Days. 1926 included a rubric, "and on other fiting occasions". This allows for the prayer to be also used on Plough Monday (in early January) and on Lammas Day:

Almighty God, Lord of heaven and earth, in whom we live, and move, and have our being; who dost cause thy sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendest rain both upon the just and the unjust; We beseech thee at this time favourably to behold thy people who call upon thee, and send thy blessing down from heaven to give us a fruitful season; that, our hearts being continually filled with thy goodness, we may evermore give thanks unto thee in thy holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Now we are at the time of the "fruitful season". Having especially beseeched God for his blessings upon the land at key points in the agricultural year - on Plough Monday, Rogationtide, and Lammas - in these October days we rejoice in those blessings, in "thy goodness" at harvest.

While those who dismiss Harvest Thanksgiving as a Victorian invention often make mention of the fact that the BCP 1662 has no such provision, it is the case that - in addition to prayers of thanksgiving for the harvest being published by authority and for use in parish churches throughout the 18th century - the Prayer Book, with the petition in the Litany and the reference to "all the blessings of this life" in the General Thanksgiving, orients us towards harvest, encouraging thanksgiving for its fruits. This was routinely given expression in the 18th century with the Sunday closest to Michaelmas - the harvest gathered in - being a Sacrament Sunday. The Harvest Thanksgiving provision in, for example, the PECUSA 1789 and Ireland 1878 revisions is, therefore, an organic development, growing out of 1662's oft-repeated prayers and thanksgivings.

Harvest Thanksgiving draws together prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings which we have offered throughout the year. In doing so, it provides a yearly observance in which we rejoice that the Triune God hears these prayers and thanksgivings, and has poured forth His blessings. The fruits of this we see now, as the leaves fall, the days shorten, and the bounty of harvest gladdens our hearts.