This Sunday’s worship again reflects on the importance of the harvest in our lives, both spiritually and temporally. Our reading is given for us by Dillon Howell and the hymns and harvest music is played by John Strain on the organ at Ballee Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church.
The video both begins and ends with images from harvest services in our churches over recent years. They are always such uplifting occasions and a great deal of thought goes into making the churches look so attractive. It is nice to be reminded of some of the imaginative and creative displays that we always see in our churches. Click on the above video to see the service.
The Non-Subscribing Presbyterian churches of Downpatrick, Ballee and Clough are marking the time of Harvest with an online service. The service features readings delivered by members, hymns played on the organs of the three churches by the church organists and film of farming activity across the locality provided by church members.
The service can be viewed here:
The service is led by the minister, Rev Dr David Steers with readings given by:
Elsie Nelson, Deuteronomy ch.26 v.1-4, 8-11
Robert Neill, Psalm 65 v.5-13
Sophia Cleland, Mark ch.4 v.26-34
The Church Organists are:
Laura Patterson, Downpatrick
Come ye thankful people come (‘Hymns of Faith and Freedom’ 454)
We plough the fields and scatter (‘Hymns of Faith and Freedom’ 456)
Alfie McClelland, Clough
Rejoice the Lord is King (‘Hymns of Faith and Freedom’ 62)
John Strain, Ballee
Holy is the seed time
The God of Harvest Praise (‘Hymns of Faith and Freedom’ 457)
This is the time of year for services of Harvest Thanksgiving, important occasions for all kinds of congregations in many different types of denomination. Our service today includes the Diary of a Church Mouse by John Betjeman and read by Sue Steers. In this famous poem the Mouse reveals that :
Christmas and Easter may be feasts For congregations and for priests, And so may Whitsun. All the same, They do not fill my meagre frame. For me the only feast at all Is Autumn’s Harvest Festival
Above all the Harvest underpins our understanding of God.
Christina Rossetti wrote:
Lord, purge our eyes to see within the seed a tree, Within the glowing egg a bird, Within the shroud a butterfly, Til, taught by such, we see beyond all creatures, thee.
The hymns are We plough the fields, and scatter (Hymns of Faith and Freedom 456) and Come ye thankful people come (Hymns of Faith and Freedom 454) and are played by John Strain on the church organ. You can see the service here:
Time for a Story: Reformation
The end of October sees Reformation Day and Time for a Story retells the story of Martin Luther and the 95 Theses, including the top selling model of Luther manufactured by Playmobil. The story is told by Sue Steers and can be seen here:
Last week we were considering the legacy of Rev Henry Montgomery and using the story in Mark’s gospel of Jesus and the disciples walking through the grainfields and plucking the ears of corn to eat on the Sabbath. In its own way this was a template for being prepared to radically reform religious practice whenever it is deemed essential.
No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; if he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; if he does, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but new wine is for fresh skins.
Mark ch.2 v.21-22.
Today’s service continues with this theme. Filmed in the First Presbyterian (NS) Church, Downpatrick the reading is from 2 Corinthians ch.3 v.1-6 and is given by church secretary Mary Stewart. Laura Patterson plays the hymns How deep the Father’s love for us and Great is thy faithfulness. Click on the following link to join in the service:
If you look closely at the film outside the Church in Downpatrick at the start and during the hymns you will catch glimpses of the Swifts flying about the church yard.
Our worship today comes from Dunmurry and considers the theological legacy of the Rev Henry Montgomery, nineteenth-century minister of the church and leader amongst the Non-Subscribing Presbyterians.
Henry Montgomery, portrait in Dunmurry Church
That the imposition of human tests and confessions of faith, and the vain efforts of men to produce an unattainable uniformity of belief, have not only tended to encourage hypocrisy, but also to restrict the sacred right of private judgment – to lessen the authority of the Scriptures – to create unrighteous divisions amongst Christians – to sanction the most barbarous persecutions – to trench on the natural and civil rights of men – to place undue power in the hands of the few – to throw a shield over the time-serving – to expose the honest to injuries and persecutions – to perpetuate errors in almost all churches – and to prevent that free inquiry and discussion which are essential to the extension of religious knowledge.
(From the principles expounded by Henry Montgomery in 1830)
Morning Worship, Sunday, 20th September 2020
Service from the First Presbyterian (NS) Church, Dunmurry. Conducted by the Rev Dr David Steers. Today’s reading is given by Noelle Wilson from Mark ch.2 v.18-28 and Allen Yarr plays the hymns Just as I am, Thine own to be (‘Church Hymnary’, 497) and Thy Kingdom come, O God (‘Church Hymnary’, 152) on the church organ. Click on the above link to see the service.
Apple Tree, Ballee
And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.
After the flood, while the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
Genesis (ch1 v.31 & ch.8 v.22)
All our churches are now returning to Sunday worship although not on every Sunday just yet during the current crisis. For the time being we will also be continuing with our online acts of worship every Sunday on our YouTube Channel: Downpatrick, Ballee & Clough NSP Churches.
The first service back at Dunmurry after lockdown was also live streamed on Facebook on Sunday, 13th September at 11.30 am. The full service can be seen in the following video:
….And I have felt A presence that disturbs me with the joy Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime Of something far more deeply interfused, Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, And the round ocean and the living air…
The service for today considers our experience of the holy, especially in relation to the natural world. The Biblical reading comes from Job ch.12 v.7-10 and is given by Doreen Chambers. Alfie McClelland plays the organ at Clough – the hymns ‘When morning gilds the skies’ (Hymns of Faith and Freedom 26) and ‘City of God, how broad and far’ (Hymns of Faith and Freedom 202). The service is conducted by Rev Dr David Steers. Click on the following video (after 9.45 am on Sunday, 13th September) to join in the act of worship.
But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or the plants of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you
Thou, whose almighty word Chaos and darkness heard, And took their flight; Hear us, we humbly pray; And, where the gospel’s day Sheds not its glorious ray, Let there be light!
Sunday, 6th September marks the day we have started our return to worshipping together in church but our online services continue and today this one comes from Ballee Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church.
Mountains and hills play a key part in the Old Testament and as we reflect on them we contemplate the whole of Creation and our part in it:
Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised in the city of our God! His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth, (Psalm 48)
The service is conducted by the Rev Dr David Steers, the reading (Psalm 121) is given by Carol Nixon at Downpatrick, and John Strain plays the organ at Ballee Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church. Click on the above link to join in this short act of worship.
Time for a Story: The Riverbank
This week Time for a Story looks at Kenneth Grahame’s famous book The Wind in the Willows. Told by Sue Steers is also features special animation. Click on the above link to see the video.
Today our service comes from Downpatrick and considers the career of the Rev David Maginnis who was born in Downpatrick and whose family belonged to the congregation.
An exploration of the life and ministry of Rev David Maginnis
b. Woodgrange, Downpatrick, 6th February 1821. Educated Belfast Academical Institution, Queen’s College, Belfast
Minister York Street, Belfast and Stourbridge
d. Stourbridge, 11th August 1884
The interior of York Street NSP Church, Belfast where Rev David Maginnis ministered. This building was the third building on the same site. It was destroyed in the blitz of 1941
Service from First Presbyterian (NS) Church, Downpatrick
Service conducted by the minister Rev Dr David Steers
Reader: Mary Stewart, church secretary (Isaiah ch.51 v.1-6)
Organist: Laura Patterson
(Click on the above link to see the service)
This week’s Time for a Story contains another tale from Aesop’s Fables. Click on the video below to see it. Story told by Sue Steers, featuring special music and animation.
Today’s service comes from Inch Abbey in county Down. Service led by Rev Dr David Steers. Also taking part in the service are the Rev Rosalind Taggart and the Rev Norman Hutton.
Readings: Psalm 148 and Matthew ch.5 v.1-12
Organists:
Alfie McClelland, Clough Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church
John Strain, Ballee Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church
Hymns:
Glorious things of thee are spoken (‘Hymns of Faith and Freedom’ 233)
Seek ye first the kingdom of God (‘Hymns of Faith and Freedom’ 272)
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord (‘Hymns of Faith and Freedom’ 221)
Sent forth by God’s blessing (‘Hymns of Faith and Freedom’ 409)
Click on the above video for today’s service
Time for a Story: Stargazing
This week’s story, told by Sue Steers FRSA, with special animation by InkLightning, features the life of Galileo. It can be seen here:
The ancient parish churchyard of Dunluce on the North Antrim coast
John Cameron is a name which I suspect is not widely known today. He was the minister of Dunluce Presbyterian Church for around 45 years but his career was quite richly textured. Born in Edinburgh and educated at the university there he came to Ulster as a missionary of the Reformed Presbytery but he was offered and accepted the ministry of the new Presbyterian Church at Dunluce in 1755. In time he was the moderator of the Synod of Ulster but he also became a Non-Subscriber, following the ideas on original sin of John Taylor of Norwich, becoming a correspondent of Joseph Priestley and opening up dialogue with the Presbytery of Antrim. His main theological work was published nearly thirty years after his death and edited by a Non-Subscribing Presbyterian minister. The history and connections of the Rev John Cameron are traced in today’s service.
The full elegy can be heard in the service but the Rev George Hill wrote ‘Lines written at the grave of Cameron’ in 1837 of which this is an extract:
Peace to the gentle but undaunted spirit
That shrunk not from the side of simple truth,
When multitudes were leagued to quench her life,
And Priests betrayed, or traded with her name!
In this lone region, ‘mid surrounding gloom,
One “shining light” arose, one voice was heard
Re-echoing the words which Jesus spake,
Asserting the grand doctrine which all time
and nature, and religion have averred –
One God the Father, merciful and just,
One God in all, through all the universe
Dunluce Presbyterian Church today
The service can be seen in the above video which is filmed in Ballee, Dunmurry and Dunluce. The organist is John Strain who plays the hymns Be still for the presence of the Lord and There’s a wideness in God’s mercy on the organ at Ballee.
Time for a Story: Slow and Steady
This week’s Time for a Story tells the story from Aesop’s Fables of the Tortoise and the Hare. With animation by InkLightning, special music and illustrations you can see the story, told by Sue Steers, by clicking on the above link.
