What a beautiful display we achieved this year for our Harvest Thanksgiving Service on the 31st January. The whole parish gathered to worship at Christ Church Swan Hill, and we had a grand assortment of fruit, vegetables, grain, eggs, jams and preserves. The perishables were put on the trading table after the service and donations with a longer shelf life went to St Luke’s Anglicare. At the end of the service the schoolies, children and a teacher, brought their backpacks up for a blessing with this beautiful prayer written by Wendy Claire Barrie,Director of Children, Youth & Family Ministries at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in New York City.
God of Wisdom,we give you thanks for schools and classrooms and for the teachers and students who fill them each day. We thank you for this new beginning, for new books and new ideas. We thank you for sharpened pencils, pointy crayons, and crisp blank pages waiting to be filled. We thank you for the gift of making mistakes and trying again. Help us to remember that asking the right questions is often as important as giving the right answers. Today we give you thanks for these your children, and we ask you to bless them with curiosity, understanding and respect. May their backpacks be a sign to them that they have everything they need to learn and grow this year in school and in Sunday School. May they be guided by your love. All this we ask in the name of Jesus, who as a child in the temple showed his longing to learn about you, and as an adult taught by story and example your great love for us. Amen.