The Hempnall Group

As we celebrate the Harvest this year we have been remembering the contribution that farmers and those who work with them make to our lives.  At our Harvest services we have collected gifts of money to give to YANA.  This is a local charity which supports the farming community, especially with mental health.  You can find out more about their work at : YANA Website

God promises us that all we need will be provided for us and harvest reminds us to give thanks for all that we have.  In these times of reduced means, as many struggle to put food on the table, harvest time offers us the opportunity to recognise how much we do have and to look for ways to share with others.  We can also think about the wonderful world that God has created and the ways that we can respect and heal it.

"Count your blessings" may be an old adage, but this is certainly a time of the year when we might encourage one another to see the abundance of God's provision for us.

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Our new benefice has a new name:

The Langhale Benefice.

Langhale is one of Norfolk's "lost" villages and became part of present day Kirstead in the eighteenth century.  It appears in the Domesday book and we know that it had its own church, dedicated to St Christopher.  In 1421 the "living" of Langhale was combined with that of Kirstead and one rector served both churches.  Over time the Langhale bit of "Kirstead with Langhale" has fallen out of use.

The name was chosen for our new benefice, bringing together the Brooke Benefice and the Hempnall Group of Churches, as name is local but does not belong to any one of the thirteen villages that make up the group.  Also, geographically, the site of Langhale is the joining point of the two benefices.

It will still be some time before the name becomes part of our legal identity but it will begin to be used in the coming months.

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When Jesus left his disciples to go back to God the Father, he promised to send them his Holy Spirit to guide, support and inspire them for their future work as bearers of the Gospel story.  On Sunday we remembered and celebrated the arrival of the Holy Spirit on those first disicples and considered our own relationship with the Holy Spirit too.

St Paul urged the Christians in Galatia to "live by the Spirit", being guided by her in the choices they made and in the way that they lived their lives.  He identified nine "fruits" by which people would know the Spirit was at work in the world.  It would be wonderful to think that people see the Spirit at work in our churches and in our lives because we also live lives full of: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

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