The Episcopal Networks Collaborative is offering Harvest Season Reflections 2018 for the final two months of Pentecost in Year B. The focus is on labor because the bountiful harvest demonstrates the unification of the labor of God and people as experienced in the Offertory of the Eucharist service. The bringing forth of the elements to the altar is a joyful unification of our labor and God’s Blessing.

The themes of equity & respect for labor, creation care, joy in creativity, Sabbath rest, and gratitude for co-laborers are explored in the reflections for “A Season of Harvest” offered by lay leaders and clergy active in Episcopal Network for Economic Justice (ENEJ), Union of Black Episcopalians (UBE), and Episcopal Ecological Network (EpEN).

In 1988, the 69^th General Convention of The Episcopal Church established a church-wide program concerned with broad expressions of economic justice. Nearly a decade later, in 1997, the 72^nd General Convention returned to some of the same concerns when it authorized a study at all levels of church life of “Theology of Work.” Several dioceses took up this call.

In this 30^th anniversary year of The Episcopal Church’s advocacy for a more just economic system, and in the second decade of the Church’s explorations into the theological underpinnings of work in our society, these promptings and provocations are all the more timely and useful for teaching and preaching during the last weeks of the Church Year.

A copy is available for download at http://www.enej.org/assets/pdfs/HarvestSeasonReflections2018.pdf

Questions and comments may be addressed to iris@speravi.com.

These Harvest Season reflections are part of the Joint Education and Advocacy effort of the Episcopal Networks Collaborative. In the past, the Collaborative has offered justice reflections for the Sundays of Advent, a Lenten Reflection Series, Reflections for the Creation Season, and O Antiphons Reflections.