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I want to give a huge shout out, here on the Today programme, to the children of my Sunday School in Kew who won first prize for their group entry at the Kew Horticultural Show on Saturday. All summer, they have been working hard to build a bug hotel in the graveyard which they have cleverly named the Roach and Horses after the pub opposite the church. It is going to be a heaven for all sorts of creepy crawlies, and after the service on Sunday 鈥 which was Harvest Festival 鈥 we all processed outside blessed the bug hotel in a special ceremony. 鈥淎ll things bright and beautiful鈥 we sang 鈥渁ll creatures great and small.鈥 In a suburban setting like Kew, Harvest Festival is inevitably less about gathering in from the fields, and more about the tomatoes and marrows from people鈥檚 allotments and even flowers from their gardens. That鈥檚 why we have it a few weeks early. Of course we sing 鈥渨e plough the fields and scatter鈥, but nobody here actually does that. We are a nation of gardeners, and it鈥檚 in gardens that millions of people get on their knees and have a bit of quiet restorative time to contemplate life, the universe and everything. There is a remarkable proximity to what people do in their gardens and what they do in church. As Vicar, I handed out the cups at the Horticultural show and the rain bucketed down. 鈥淚 am just in sales鈥 I explained 鈥渘ot in management鈥. People seemed to appreciate the joke. So, does this sound all a bit too twee? A bit John Nettles in Midsomer Murders? Actually, Harvest Festival was a lot more politically sensitive this year and I had to tread carefully. My parish is located in the latest ULEZ expansion zone that comes into effect this morning. For many this is a necessary policy to address vital issues of the environment and public health, for others it feels like a tax on their freedom and livelihoods. But this tension was unsurprising - given the pressing importance of climate change and more and more calls for environmental justice, Harvest Festival is no longer a safe bit of liturgy with a few familiar hymns to match. And those of us who understand the motivation of more radical protesters from Just Stop Oil, and the like, may also wonder whether there are not many different ways of witnessing to the most urgent moral issue of our time. The vegetables all laid out in rows at the show, with rosettes for the winners, spoke to a loving care for creation that is precisely the kind of attitude we need to foster. It will be the children of my Sunday School and their generation that will pay the price if we duck this challenge. And they will not forgive us if we do.
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