We look forward to welcoming the Revd Dr Gordon Gatward to preach at the Harvest Festival Services at St Mary’s, Fen Drayton, at 9.30am and at St Andrew’s, Swavesey, at 11.00am on Sunday 8th October 2006.
The Revd Dr Gordon Gatward, OBE is Director of the Arthur Rank Centre - a Christian organisation, based at the Royal Agricultural Society of England’s HQ in Warwickshire. The Arthur Rank Centre is funded by the RASE, The Rank Foundation and the national churches. It is the home of the National Rural Officers for the Church of England, as well as for the Methodist, Baptist and United Reformed Churches.
To enable Dr Gatward to preach at these services, the usual sequence of worship for a second Sunday of a month will be used on Sunday 1st October and that for the first Sunday of a month will be used on Sunday 8th October.
The Harvest Festival service at All Saints,’ Lolworth, will thus be held on Sunday 1st October at 9.30am and the Harvest Festival Evensong at St Mary’s, Conington, be held at 6.30pm on the same day, with Swavesey Choir in attendance as usual.
John-David Yule
Hailing from Scottish farming stock, Gordon Gatward, our Harvest Festival Preacher at Fen Drayton and Swavesey, is an ordained Methodist minister. He gained his PhD in the ethics of livestock production. Before joining the Royal Agricultural Society of England, Gordon was Rural Chaplain for Lincolnshire.
Today, Gordon plays a key part in representing the Christian viewpoint in many different arenas involved in food production and rural enterprise. Amongst the projects he is works in are the issues of food ethics, migrant labour, youth training, rural stress and crisis counselling, etc. He founded Farm Crisis Network and remains its chairman.
He gained his OBE for his work on behalf of the farming industry during the foot and mouth crisis, a period during which he was instrumental in founding the ARC-Addington Trust which provides housing for those who are forced to leave farming.