Harvest Services at Donemana

The church was decorated beautifully with a colourful array of flowers, fruit, vegetables and a window devoted to a display of honey, carefully produced by a member of the congregation. Rev. Dr. Stewart Jones opened the service thanking both those who gave gifts and the dedication of the choir with their special harvest anthems who had been trained and accompanied by Mrs Linda Kennedy-McNeill on the organ and keyboard and Judith Allen on the flute.

The choir sang the introit, ‘A Worker’s Prayer’ by Keith and Kristyn, with first verse solo by Rachel McCombe. Hymns were ‘For the fruits of his creation’, ‘It takes an Almighty Hand to make your harvest grow’, ‘Praise God for the harvest’.

The choir sang the anthems ‘Golden Sheaves’ and ‘The Golden Fields’ with solos by Judith Allen and Rachel McCombe.

The morning reading was taken from Isaiah 40, 6-8 which Rev Dr Jones used to illustrate his sermon.

Rev Dr Stewart Jones based the children’s address on the word ‘harvest’, encouraging the children to make other words from harvest, words such as ‘starve’ and ‘share’, drawing back on the meaning of harvest. We are blessed with so much that God wants us to share with people who have less than we have.

After the sermon, the morning service concluded with the singing of ‘We thank you, Lord, for all your gifts’ and The Benediction.

At the evening service Rev Dr Stewart Jones gave the address.

He welcomed all the visitors and the choir opened the service with their introit, ‘A Worker’s Prayer’, after which Rev Dr Jones offered scriptural sentences.

The evening hymns were ‘Come, you thankful people, come’ with the solo by Lorraine Smyth ‘The Wonder of it all’.

The hymns were, ‘God whose farm is all creation’, ‘How can we sing with joy to God’ and ‘We plough the fields and scatter’.

The choir sang two evening anthems, The Reaping’, with solos by Lorraine Smyth and Hilary Boyd and ‘Jesus is all the world to me’ with Hilary Boyd singing the third verse.

The reading for the evening service was taken from Isaiah Ch 55, which was also used by Rev Dr Jones to illustrate his sermon.

The evening service ended with The Benediction.