Thursday 19 May 2011

Rogation Sunday and Beating the Bounds

Rogation Sunday is the fifth Sunday after Easter - 29th May this year. It's a day when we ask God to bless the crops (to ask is rogare in Latin), the farmers who work the land, and we can pray for our environment.

If you want to celebrate Rogation Sunday, you can download an order of service for Holy Communion on Rogation Sunday, prepared by the Revd Canon Richard Rowling, the Archbishop's Adivsor on Rural Affairs here.

In centuries past, Rogation Sunday also saw the Beating of the Bounds. Congregations would walk around the boundaries of each parish, marking what lay inside the parish, and what had changed from last year. Some parishes still do this today, looking at natural resources and focusing on God's creation in their own parish.

If you are planning to Beat the Bounds of your parish on Sunday 29th May, why not take an inventory of the natural resources - ponds, woods or rivers - in your parish, and how you might best preserve them and increase the biodiversity of your parish.

Please do send your photos and reports of Beating the Bounds to comms@yorkdiocese.org. 

Eleanor Course

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