"And all the blessings of this life": Autumn Thanksgiving days

The days are noticeably shorter and colder.  The leaves are gathering on roads and footpaths.  We are in the midst of Autumn, with its transitory richness both a moment of joy but also an intimation of our mortality.

Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;

Lengthen night and shorten day;

Every leaf speaks bliss to me

Fluttering from the autumn tree - Emily Bronte, 'Fall, leaves, fall'.

October is also the season of Harvest Thanksgiving in these Islands, with parish churches giving thanks for the bounty of the harvest.

We yield thee hearty thanks that thou hast safely brought us to the season of harvest visiting the earth and blessing it, and crowning the year with thy goodness - Church of Ireland BCP 1926, A Form of Thanksgiving for the Blessings of Harvest.

In Canada, today is Thanksgiving Day, celebrated amidst the bounty of Fall and harvest.  

O MOST merciful Father, we humbly thank thee for all thy gifts so freely bestowed upon us - Canadian BCP 1962, Collect for Thanksgiving Day.

And as the season draws to a close in late November, Thanksgiving will be celebrated in the United States.

O most merciful Father, who hast blessed the labours of the husbandman in the returns of the fruits of the earth; We give thee humble and hearty thanks for this thy bounty - PECUSA BCP 1928, Collect for Thanksgiving Day.

There is a tendency in some quarters of Anglicanism to dismiss or devalue such observances as unpalatable folk or civic religion.  As can often be the case, however, folk and civic religion plays a significant theological function in reminding the Church that grace does not destroy nature.  There is a deep wisdom, then, in these days being given over for particular thanksgiving at this season.

Surrounded by the 'mellow fruitfulness' of Autumn and mindful of the bounty of the harvest, these observances renew us in thanksgiving for the goodness of the created order, and for God's providential ordering of that order.  They bring us in a particular, concentrated fashion to offer afresh the words of the General Thanksgiving:

We bless thee for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life ...

The thanksgiving and gratitude which should flow from the first article of the creed - "maker of heaven and earth" - all too easily passes us by, not least in an age when prayer and thanksgiving for rain, sunshine, land, food can encounter ecclesial disapproval or bemusement.  These observances, by contrast, renew us in the practice of thanksgiving for "all good gifts around us", in dependence upon and gratitude towards the One from whom "every good gift and every perfect gift" comes.

This also points to how these observances offer the potential of a renewed natural theology, an issue of some significance in light of the Dawkins-like scientism and dry naturalism that can often dominate contemporary cultural discourse.  In the words of Augustine on the miracle of the water turned into wine:

For even as that which the servants put into the water-pots was turned into wine by the doing of the Lord, so in like manner also is what the clouds pour forth changed into wine by the doing of the same Lord. But we do not wonder at the latter, because it happens every year: it has lost its marvellousness by its constant recurrence. And yet it suggests a greater consideration than that which was done in the water-pots. For who is there that considers the works of God, whereby this whole world is governed and regulated, who is not amazed and overwhelmed with miracles? If he considers the vigorous power of a single grain of any seed whatever, it is a mighty thing, it inspires him with awe.

An unembarrassed and confident natural theology should be proclaimed in our observance of these days of thanksgiving, exposing the spiritual, emotional, and poetic emptiness of scientism and naturalism, calling forth a richer account of the reason which orders all things.  

Finally, it is not amidst the exuberance of Spring or the glories of High Summer that these observances of thanksgiving occur.  It is now, as the leaves fall and the days shorten, as another year prepares to pass and as winter draws closer, and as the transitory nature of our mortal life is reflected in the natural world around us.  This is a time when we need to be reminded of God's gracious gifts and provision, so as not to be overcome by the melancholy which can be associated with Autumn.  It is a time which also schools us to heed the apostolic exhortation, "in every thing give thanks". Yes, even in this season when we see and feel that "in the midst of life we are in death".

This is the wisdom of these days of thanksgiving during Autumn, a wisdom which should lead Anglicans to cherish such observances.  They root us in the doctrines of creation and providence, and renew us in the practices of thanksgiving "for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life".  The attachment of folk and civic religion to these observances, rather than being a cause for ecclesial suspicion, points to truths written on the heart even in a secular age: of a recognition that it is meet and right to give thanks to the Creator for blessings bestowed.  A sectarian ecclesial identity which devalues or dismisses this desire to give thanks is - as is often the case with sectarian theologies and ecclesial practices - obscuring the truth that grace does not destroy nature, that the Redeemer is always the Creator.  On these days of Autumn thanksgiving, the Church gathers up all thanksgivings with the praise of the heavenly host and orders it towards the Holy Trinity, from whom all good things come.