PRAYERS FOR RURAL FOLK
PRAYERS FOR RURAL FOLK
FARMERS will be in the prayers of thousands of people this Sunday (May 20), as church congregations pray for crisis-hit rural communities.
Rogation Sunday services will run in tandem with the Arthur Rank Centres Green Ribbon Campaign, encouraging people to wear a lapel ribbon to show their support for farming families.
The Bishop of Hereford, the Rt Rev John Oliver, says the ancient Rogation tradition has a strong resonance this year as foot-and-mouth and seed drilling difficulties cause "distress and despair" in the countryside.
"People are baffled, puzzled and frightened – there are a whole lot of issues people will be more anxious than usual to reflect and pray on."
According to Rev Gordon Gatward of the Arthur Rank Centre, wearing the green ribbon on – and after – this Sunday will help keep the plight of farmers in the publics mind.
"The Church has been at the heart of a lot of the response to foot-and-mouth giving practical and pastoral support," he adds.
Meanwhile some congregations are planning to follow the Rogation tradition of taking services outside.
Rev John Fellows will be taking his congregation through the fields at Peper Harow, Surrey, with a Salvation Army band after the service. "We have had a Rogation Day service here for as long as anyone can remember," he says. "Although there has been no foot-and-mouth here, thank goodness, the knock-on effects have been felt."