Cuttings from an ancient tree are to be planted in St Just as part of Rogation Sunday activities.

This Sunday (MAY 10) is Rogation Sunday, where churchgoers across the diocese will pause to acknowledge the effort it takes for food to go from farm to fork.

It is also a time to think about the environment, creation and God’s blessing on agriculture.

Revd Karsten Wedgewood, Priest in Charge of St Just, Pendeen and Morvah, is organising a Rogation Sunday Safari starting at St Just Church at 9.30am. The first activity, at 10am, will be the planting of an ancient Yew Tree sapling from a Millennium Tree – from a cutting taken from ancient yews from the time of Christ.

Sapling in ground, a wooden box and shoes behind.

One of the saplings which was planted in St Columb Major. Photo credit PR4Photos

The sapling has been lovingly cared for by Jacqueline Dow, from Penzance, who had 10 cuttings from the Millennium Yew in St Mawgan-in-Meneage. The saplings have been donated to a number of places including St Columb Major. This Sunday, the last one will be planted in St Just churchyard.

Jacqueline has described caring for the saplings as ‘a labour of love’.

Plans for Rogation Sunday Safari

The safari will then move on to Cape Cornwall then Pendeen School, Geevor Mine, Hichen’s Dairy Farm before ending at Morvah Church with a simple lunch.

Revd Wedgewood wrote in his parish magazine: “Spring does more than change the scenery; it changes us as well. We all feel better for the extended daylight hours and sunshine. Spring calls something up from within us, a yearning for new beginnings, a readiness to grow. For centuries, the Church has given this feeling a name and a practice: Rogation. It comes from the Latin rogare, meaning ‘to ask’.”

He wrote, in the past, between Easter and Ascension, people would walk the boundaries of their parish, pausing at various marker stones.

He added: “This year, we’re reinventing the heart of this custom for our modern lives: our Rogation Sunday Safari.  We won’t be walking the ancient bounds on foot but journeying together by car to several key places across our parishes. At each stop, we will pause to pray, to sing, and to ask God’s blessing on the life that happens there.

 

 

Prayer from https://arthurrankcentre.org.uk/church-life/rogation-sunday/