Agriculture the Cinderella of Vocations

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume 35, Issue 5, 1 July 1944, Page 6

Agriculture the Cinderella of Vocations

We have allowed agriculture to become tile Cinderella of voca-. tions and have been fascinated by the "ugly . sisters." These have not only been indifferent to her beauty, but have not'hesitated to tear off her back, for their own purposes, much of her natural adornment . The return to the land means for' many, thousands of people a return to that contact with nature which land work gives; All human beings need this contact, especially m their earlier years, if mind and character are to attain their full possibilities. Nature has many things to teach Us, and the drama of the countryside, continuous through the year, though it provides no meretricious excitement, adorns the mind with such beauty, order and stability as cannot otherwise be acquired . . . The purpose of this brief paper is to sug-. gest methods whereby this sacramental character of agrarian labours may become recognised and valued by, those" who are or shall be employed m them. A path? must be found which will lead to fuller consciousness of the relation of the "God of Earth and Altar" to human service on the land. . When, m daily occupation, the mind is concentrated on the material aspects of the Creator's purpose and the body is wearied by long hours of work upon the land, mental effort of any kind is riot easily stimulated and spiritual values wither. The imagination is torpid, new ideas are almost impossible to inject, thought moves slowly and m colloquial terms such as are associated with the daily work on the farm. It is therefore to be - expected that the ; coyntrymari seldom has appetite for things intellectual and spiritual. However skilful the teaching may be, however simple and appealing the ordered ritual of the Prayer Book, he finds it hard to discover any practical relations between his daily occupation arid what he finds m his Parish Church. The Bible is for the most part written m terms of agriculture; one who has passed the whole of his life m a great town cannot recognise its imagery as can the countryman. Every pageant of the seasons is found .within its pages, every interest of the farmer. The shepherd and his flock reappear Constantly m story and parable; famine and plenty alternate. The Israelites

were firsthand last agriculturists and their writings are clothed m the sym-, bojls of agriculture., In a Galilean Village. The Scriptures for this reason, make their own appeal to the countryman and he listens to them attentively when read m the Church, if he is there. He will often quote them, applying texts with a literalism which is apt to be embarrassing to those who would guide his thoughts m the direction of spiritual truths. But he finds a giilf between^ his physical and mental concentration on the farm and the dignified and comprehensive outlook of the Prayer Book. In this Connection we may reverently ponder the fact that He who was bred up and worked m a Galilean village, of whom His contemporaries declared that no man ever so spake, centralised His spiritual contact with His disciples m the sacramental use of common bread, whether of wheat or, barley. It is not improbable that this , came from the cornfield of some friend, together with the rough peasants' wine of which the grapes nray have ripened on some little vineyard at Bethany. , The words used when He broke up the bread and passed round the cup are at least patent , of an illusion to the fact that His strong and vigorous manhood, about, to be Submitted to His murderous enemies, had been built up on the home-produced food of the Galilean farms. Such an illusion would have been very vivid to those who had grown up with Him m Galilee. The appeal of it would surely come home very closely to-day to the man who works upon the land m order thai he and others may have simple but nourishing food to sustain a hard-worked body. It would give him a new perception of what the Church among the farms has to do with him. Such a thought may have been m the mirid of the poet-priest, Hawker of Morwenstow, when— exactly a hundred years ago— he called together his villagers and bade them adorn their church with, their harvestings m thankful recognition that out of the earth's sustaining products God had rewarded their toil. .In this Church .Festival the labourer could readily recognise v that there was spiritual significance m his farm work. It is to be noted that, although deprecated by many in-

strucfed Church people, the "Harvest Thanksgiving" readily became popular "and is now more, eagerly attended by village people than most of our Church Festivals. This was recognised m the Revised Prayer Book of 1928, Which added Scriptures and prayers for harvest festivals. In this way has been taught the sacramental connection between the haryest which has been gathered m and the thankoffering made from it m the Parish Church. , Rogationtide. ' The observance of the four days preceding the Festival of the Ascension as "Rogationtide" derives from the fifth century and has continued with us, m a more or less attenuated form, to the- present time, when it receives some revival m the Revised Prayer Book. Hitherto, m 166?, the only attention accorded to Rogationtide m the Prayer Book had been a couple of somewhat perfunctory collects to be found among prayers appointed "for several occasions." The word "Rogation" indicates that at this , time prayers may be offered for the up-growing crops and for their ripening. It is obviously desirable that the observance should take the form of visits m procession of the workers and villagers generally to the fields where the corn and other, crops are springing up. If one may judge by the muster for procession where of late, and to an increasing extent, these processions have been revived, this Rogation 4 , method makes a general appeal to the local land .workers, who, at the various stations, enter into the Scriptures read and the brief prayers offered, and who rejoice m the hymns. Profoundly experienced m the anxieties caused by the uncertainties of the land's fertility and the climate, the farmers and their helpers welcome the parson's public recognition of their anxieties; They appreciate the Church's entry into the familiar fields m order to pray that the growling crops, shall ultimately reward their labours. These up-springing crops have a sacramental significance by relating the toil of those' m charge of the land to the prayer of ail Christendom, "Give us our daily buead." ' "Plough Sunday,'* observed on a Sunday following the Festival of Epiphany, is based on the ancient custom which can be sublimated into a Church observance. "Plough Monday" was m mediaeval times a fes-

live wind-up for farm workers of the Yuletide Festival. Where these Plough Services have been held, immediate appreciation has been shown by the rural population. Ploughing and sowing are not light and unskilled tasks, nor are they exhilerating. But there is an inborn instinct m the skilled land- worker which finds satisfaction m the field beautifully tilled, whether by the strength of men and horses or by mechanical methods. "Fellow-workers With God" _ A simple plough set m the chancel arch, with the farmers or others ranged beside it, who request the Priest of their Parish to bless their winter's work of which the plough, there set, is the symbol, makes an immediate appeal to a congregation who know only too well what field service m winter means. The Pauline phrase "fellow-workers with God" has a direct application, and m a "Plough Service" this- phrase has a definite value for spiritual consciousness. In the Saxon Chronicle, August I is alluded to as Lammas Day. St. Oswald m his Sarum Missal gives it the same title. It is still so styled m the Prayer Book of 1662. It has continued there, although there is some difference of opinion as to the origin of the word Lammas and observance of the day, m any definite reference, has disappeared for centuries. If we accept the most probable derivation that the word-is from the Saxon "hlaf," then the word must mean "Loaf -Mass." This suggests the observance of the day as. that on which the first loaf from the new harvest, commenged m the parish, was brought to the Church and presented for administration m the most sacred of Christian ri£es . . . The Minister of -Agriculture . . . appointed mid-July ,for "Farm Sunday" on account of the early harvest (m England), m some degree recognising the suitability of an observance by the village churches as harvest commences. / On the Sunday following' Lammas Day for morning or evening service the sheaf of corn first cut m the parish could be. solemnly brought through the (^hurch and placed where the plough had been on "Plough Sunday," and again special psalms, lessons, prayers and hymns could emphasise the recognition by ~the assembled folk of the Creator's goodness m the mystery, of the earth's rfertility. It could scarcely be that the suggestions which are ventured upon m this paper, if carried out with imagination, carefulness ' and sympathy, could fail to stimulate m those whose lives are. given to agricultural occtt-

pations at) appreciation of the : relation of the Parish Church to ' the villages and the land. ~ It would also give 1 a new dignity to the oldest of vocations; m that it would help them to recognise that m tilling the soil they are> employed by God for a fundamental service to their country.. —The Bishop of Salisbury; The Fortnightly, and reprinted ■ from The Lantern. s