Harvest

Harvest Celebrations We follow the tradition of giving thanks to God for the harvest during the Autumn term.

At St James’ we usually have a whole school Mass of Thanksgiving with our parishioners in church. For our Harvest Mass we collect packets and tins for our local food bank, the South Tameside and Longdendale Food Bank which is based at St Barnabas’ Church in Hattersley. We are always overwhelmed by the generosity of this collection.

We like to support the food bank as we know that it benefits our friends and neighbours and quite often ourselves. During the corona virus pandemic our friends at the food bank helped us by providing breakfast bags, Christmas hampers and Christmas vouchers, Advent Calendars, milk and snacks for Care Club and lots of love and prayers. We really appreciate them and all they do for us. 

In 2020 we couldn’t gather together for Mass so each class provided a videoed hymn, Fr Philip videoed a reading, Fr Paul gave us a virtual sermon, Rev Denise led us through harvest prayers and Bishop Mark kindly found time to send us his blessing. This was the first time that we had tried a virtual celebration and it was a great success. We couldn’t have our usual collection of food but a very generous £80 in cash was raised instead. 

In 2021, we had a socially distanced outdoor Harvest Celebration on the playground it was the first time the whole school had been gathered together (in person) in prayer for a very long time and was very emotional! We had a collection of money for the food bank and were delighted to send them a cheque for £125.

Since Covid, it has been wonderful to be able to gather together in Church again to celebrate a Mass of thanksgiving for the Harvest.

If you are in need of a food bank voucher please contact school and we can help you.