Dear Friends,

During September, we celebrate our Harvest Festival, when we give thanks for the food we need to stay alive and for our farmers who produce it. In particular, we remember all those involved in getting our food to the shops and to the super-markets for us to buy.  

This summer, the harvest has been early, due to successive heat waves followed by a period of sustained drought, which have lead to wild fires not just in the country but across Western Europe. The price of our good has also gone up. All around us the fields are brown or yellow. In some places autumn has started early, as leaves have fallen from the trees: all because of a lack of water and no rain to sustain them. Global warming is a reality.

As we become accustomed to climate change, we pray that we will be able to adapt our lives to it and our Scientists find ways to either abate it altogether, or to slow it down. Our summers will never quite be the same again.

This Harvest Time, may we remember all those involved in the food industry, as well as all those who are trying to relieve food shortages and to reduce food poverty not just in our own country through the provision of food banks, but also across the world.

God Bless,

Andrew