As Creationtide draws to a close, the harvest season begins. Chaplaincies across the diocese have been marking its arrival in various ways including staging a play, shopping for charity and running fundraisers.

Pictured: Christ Church, Kyiv

Against the backdrop of war which has ravaged Ukraine for more than seven months, the chaplaincy in Kyiv celebrated harvest last Sunday, having only resumed their regular Sunday services in September.

Christina Laschenko, Churchwarden in Kyiv, reported, "our congregation is not numerous, we are only six members of the congregation who now stay in Kyiv. On two Sundays out of three, upon revival of our worships, we also had visitors. I received news that some other members of our congregation are planning to come back to Kyiv soon too.

"Both these trends give hope for restoration of our community along with successful offensive of Ukrainian Defence Forces in the Eastern and Southern Fronts." 

The chaplaincies continued prayer, as spoken in a hymn, is “they will we know we are Christians by our love”.

In Finland, St Nicholas ’Anglican Church, Helsinki, kept the environment in mind during their Harvest Celebrations as they performed a play titled, ‘God the Artist.’

Pictured: St Nicholas ’Anglican Church, Helsinki

The play, performed by the chaplaincy’s young people, told the story of a how God can guide us away from environmental destruction and towards being part of Jesus ’saving work here on earth.

The Harvest Festival continued with an all-age talk that discussed the warnings of climate change, and how we cannot go on ignoring Gods messages. You can find the talk here.

The chaplaincy in Ibiza and Formentera held two harvest celebrations for their widespread congregation. Revd Adrian Green, Chaplain of Ibiza and Formentera said,

“For me, harvest is a time for giving thanks to God for the many ways. He has blessed us as a chaplaincy and as individuals.

“The first service had input from our Creation Care Group on how we can be better stewards of what God has entrusted to us, and the second Sunday focused on the harvest field that we are called to work in. At both our services we collected food for our local Caritas and 24-7 Prayer food stores.” he added.

In Luxembourg, the chaplaincy collected non-perishable food and toiletries in aid of the FMPO, a national charity that runs homes which help young people and vulnerable adults.

Chaplain of the Anglican Church in Luxembourg, Revd Geoff Read, said, "In the past Harvest Festival was the one time in the year when many churches addressed the issue of creation. Now that Creationtide is a well-established part of the liturgical year in our churches I wonder how Harvest Festival could and should develop?"

Parishioners and visitors to St. George’s Church in Sicily spent their Harvest Festival collecting tinned and long-life goods to be donated to the AVULSS, a voluntary organisation in Taormina.

The chaplaincy of Albir in Costa Blanca raised €207 at their Harvest Thanksgiving service on Sunday. A group went shopping for perishables, then delivered the goods to the local food bank on the following Monday morning.

Pictured: Albir in Costa Blanca

And at La Fustera Church in Spain, the congregation collected harvest gifts for ‘Gandia Hospice’ that were later blessed by a member of clergy in the chaplaincy. After the service, the congregation was treated to live music and drinks in the sunny chaplaincy garden, before heading to a local hotel for a fellowship lunch.

More harvest services are coming up in our European chaplaincies this month. If your chaplaincy has an event planned, email us with a quick round-up of what happened at communications@europe.anglican.org or tag us in your social media posts via @dioceseineurope