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SUNDAY 5TH OCTOBER 2025 11.00 a.m.
HARVEST FESTIVAL, SUNDAY SCHOOL & BAPTISMS , ST COLUMBA’S, PONT STREET
(SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST)
Welcome
Call to Worship: Psalm 65:6-13
By your strength you established the mountains;
you are girded with might.
You silence the roaring of the seas,
the roaring of their waves,
the tumult of the peoples.
Those who live at earth’s farthest bounds are awed by your signs;
you make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy.
You visit the earth and water it,
you greatly enrich it;
the river of God is full of water;
you provide the people with grain,
for so you have prepared it.
You water its furrows abundantly,
settling its ridges,
softening it with showers,
and blessing its growth.
You crown the year with your bounty;
your wagon tracks overflow with richness.
The pastures of the wilderness overflow,
the hills gird themselves with joy,
the meadows clothe themselves with flocks,
the valleys deck themselves with grain,
they shout and sing together for joy.
Hymn 233 Come, you thankful people, come (St George’s Windsor)
{During the hymn items from the Harvest Appeal are brought forward}
1 Come, you thankful people, come,
raise the song of harvest-home:
all is safely gathered in,
ere the winter storms begin;
God, our Maker, will provide
for our needs to be supplied:
come to God’s own temple, come;
raise the song of harvest-home.
2 All this world is God’s own field,
bearing fruit his praise to yield;
wheat and tares together sown,
are to joy or sorrow grown;
first the blade and then the ear,
then the full corn shall appear:
Lord of harvest, grant that we
wholesome grain and pure may be.
3 For the Lord our God shall come,
and shall take his harvest home;
from his field shall in that day
all offences purge away;
give his angels charge at last
in the fire the tares to cast,
but the fruitful ears to store
in his storehouse evermore.
4 Even so, Lord, quickly, come;
bring your final harvest home:
gather all your people in,
free from sorrow, free from sin;
there, for ever purified,
in your presence to abide:
come, with all your angels come,
raise the glorious harvest-home!
Prayers of Approach & Confession
Sacrament of Baptism: Charles Joshua Morton, Frederick Mortimer & Isla Mortimer
Blessing {Sung by congregation} CH4 796
The Lord bless you, and keep you:
The Lord make his face to shine upon you,
and be gracious unto you:
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you,
and give you peace. Amen
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power and the glory for ever, Amen.
Hymn 103 Fill your hearts with joy and gladness (Rhuddlan)
1 Fill your hearts with joy and gladness,
sing and praise your God and mine!
Great the Lord in love and wisdom,
might and majesty divine!
He who framed the starry heavens
knows and names them as they shine.
2 Praise the Lord, his people, praise him!
Wounded souls his comfort know;
those who fear him find his mercies,
peace for pain and joy for woe;
humble hearts are high exalted,
human pride and power laid low.
3 Praise the Lord for times and seasons,
cloud and sunshine, wind and rain;
spring to melt the snows of winter
till the waters flow again;
grass upon the mountain pastures,
golden valleys thick with grain.
4 Fill your hearts with joy and gladness,
peace and plenty crown your days;
love his laws, declare his judgements,
walk in all his words and ways;
he the Lord and we his children —
praise the Lord, all people, praise!
New Testament Reading: 2 Timothy 1:1-14
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus,
To Timothy, my beloved child:
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
I am grateful to God–whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did–when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day.
Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy.
I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you.
For this reason, I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands, for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.
Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, in the power of God,who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace, and this grace was given to us in Jesus Christ before the ages began,
but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher,
and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard the deposit I have entrusted to him. Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.
Anthem: Thou visitest the earth – Greene (1696-1755)
Thou visitest the earth
And blessest it,
And blessest it;
And crownest the year,
The year with thy goodness.
Gospel Reading: Luke 17:5-10
The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
The Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
“Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here at once and take your place at the table’?
Would you not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me; put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink’? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded?
So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!'”
Hymn 230 Praise God for the harvest of orchard and field (Stowey)
1 Praise God for the harvest of orchard and field,
praise God for the people who gather their yield,
the long hours of labour, the skills of a team,
the patience of science, the power of machine.
2 Praise God for the harvest that comes from afar,
from market and harbour, the sea and the shore:
foods packed and transported, and gathered and grown
by God-given neighbours, unseen and unknown.
3 Praise God for the harvest that’s quarried and mined,
then sifted, and smelted, or shaped and refined;
for oil and for iron, for copper and coal,
praise God, who in love has provided them all.
4 Praise God for the harvest of science and skill,
the urge to discover, create and fulfil:
for dreams and inventions that promise to gain
a future more hopeful, a world more humane.
5 Praise God for the harvest of mercy and love,
from leaders and peoples who struggle and serve
with patience and kindness, that all may be led
to freedom and justice, and all may be fed.
Sermon
Anthem: Factum est silentium – Dering (c.1580-1630)
Factum est silentium in cælo,
dum committeret bellum draco cum Michaele Archangelo.
Audita est vox milia milium dicentum,
Salus, honor et virtus Omnipotenti Deo. Alleluia
There was silence in heaven while the dragon fought with the Archangel Michael.
A sound was heard, thousands of thousands saying:
salvation, honour and power to almighty God. Alleluia.
Dedication of our Offerings
(If able, please stand as the offering is brought forward and the congregation sings)
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
praise him, all creatures here below;
praise him above, ye heavenly host;
praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. (CH4 807, Old 100th)
Prayer of Dedication:
Minister: Father, Son, and Spirit Holy,
we give you thanks and praise:
Congregation: We dedicate to you
our thoughts, our words, our gifts, our deeds,
the working of our hands, the thinking of our minds,
the loving of our hearts. Amen.
Hymn 229 We plough the fields and scatter (Wir Pflugen)
1 We plough the fields and scatter
the good seed on the land,
but it is fed and watered
by God’s almighty hand;
he sends the snow in winter,
the warmth to swell the grain,
the breezes and the sunshine
and soft refreshing rain.
All good gifts around us
are sent from heaven above;
then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord,
for all his love.
2 He only is the Maker
of all things near and far;
he paints the wayside flower,
he lights the evening star;
the winds and waves obey him,
by him the birds are fed;
much more to us, his children,
he gives our daily bread.
3 We thank you then, O Father,
for all things bright and good,
the seed-time and the harvest,
our life, our health, our food.
Accept the gifts we offer
for all your love imparts,
with what we know you long for:
our humble, thankful hearts.
Harvest Song, led by our young people
Cabbages and greens, broccoli and beans,
Cauliflower and roasted potatoes, taste so good to me!
Apricots and plums, ripened in the sun,
Oranges and yellow bananas, good for everyone!
Chorus
It’s another Harvest Festival, when we bring our fruit and vegetables,
Cause we want to share the best of all the good things that we’ve been given.
It’s another opportunity to be grateful for the food we eat
With a Samba celebration to say thank you to God the Father.
Cabbages and greens, broccoli and beans,
Cauliflower and roasted potatoes, taste so good to me!
Apricots and plums, ripened in the sun,
Oranges and yellow bananas, good for everyone!
Chorus
It’s another Harvest Festival, when we bring our fruit and vegetables,
Cause we want to share the best of all the good things that we’ve been given.
It’s another opportunity to be grateful for the food we eat
With a Samba celebration to say thank you to God the Father.
Thank you for the harvest, thank you for your goodness,
For all of the fruit and vegetables and the wonderful things that grow!
Thank you for the harvest, thank you for your goodness,
For all of the fruit and vegetables and the wonderful things that grow!
Cabbages and greens, broccoli and beans,
Cauliflower and roasted potatoes, taste so good to me!
Apricots and plums, ripened in the sun,
Oranges and yellow bananas, good for everyone!
Chorus
It’s another Harvest Festival, when we bring our fruit and vegetables,
Cause we want to share the best of all the good things that we’ve been given.
It’s another opportunity to be grateful for the food we eat
With a Samba celebration to say thank you to God the Father.
God the Father.
Benediction & Choral Amen
Organ Postlude: Menuet Gothique – Boëllmann (1862-1897)
Retiring Offering for the continuing life and ministry of St Columba’s. It is possible to donate via the website. We are most grateful for all that we receive.
