The lambing shed at Box Farm in Vernham Dean is one of the more unusual settings for a church service! Around 50 people gathered last Sunday afternoon to give thanks to God and ask for his blessing on the lambs, calves and the crops.
They also witnessed the glory of God’s creation as two lambs were born as the service was taking place.
The Blessing of the Lambs is organised by St Mary’s in Vernham Dean, part of the Pastrow family of eleven churches in villages around Andover.
Licensed Lay Minister Tammy King said, “It’s an outreach to the farmers. If you can’t get farmers into your church, we’ll go to your farm and give you a short service. It also brings all the village together. It’s a real opportunity for people who don’t normally go to church to come up for the service. It’s a chance for people to really get involved with their local farm and to feel a kind of kinship to that farm.”
People had earlier gathered in the village to walk the country path together to the farm. There, they sat on hay bales or stood in the lambing shed surrounded by the bleating of the sheep.
The 20-minute service comprised of readings, prayers and ended with a song.
The service first started in the village in 2019. Tammy added, “It was while I was doing the preaching module of my licensed lay ministry training that I found out such a service existed. I tailored the script, spoke to one of our local farmers and he said ‘yes’. Obviously, we missed a year because of Covid and we had to miss last year because it had been so wet that they were lambing, calving and ploughing all at the same time. We thought us turning up would be too much but what was nice was they said, ‘we really missed you’. We still sent prayers out as a church.”
Box Farm is a mixed organic farm with livestock and crops. Farm staff will be lambing 420 ewes and calving 80 cows this month.
Andrew Sullivan is one of the farm staff and also training to be a school chaplain at nearby Shipton Bellinger. He commented, “It’s a good opportunity to bring people up from the community to see what we do here and many people in the village view this as their farm because it’s so local. It’s also a good opportunity for them to see the reality of farming and that it’s hard work. From Tammy’s point of view, and as a Christian myself, it’s good that we give thanks to God for the wonder of birth and for His creation.”
The service praised God who has made every animal, all the plants, the richness of the air we breathe, the soil of the field, for the gift of water and the sun whose warmth enables crops and plants to grow.
Prayers were said for the protection of all those who worked on farms and for peace and joy through the good times and the hard.
They gave thanks too for friendship and support of communities, for the miracle of birth and for those who work in the field to provide our food.
Mark Hillsley-Cook gave one of the readings. He said, “It’s a great opportunity to come and see the lambs, celebrate Easter and spring. It’s a nice way to be able to get the children used to nature, farming and the meaning of Easter. I think it’s a good way for the work of the church to be a real part of the community. The village has got a strong community feel and I think it’s important that this is maintained to keep the village thriving. I think events like this are exactly what makes Vernham Dean a special place to live”.
After the service, people were given the chance to hold some of the lambs much to the delight of the children.
Tammy added, “It’s not just those who live in the village who come. We get people who join this service from all around, people from Andover and some people further afield and that’s lovely. We’ve had times when we’ve had three generations of people who have come along. The majority of people at this service don’t come to church or possibly just at Christmas and you never know what seeds we are planting. That’s the lovely magic of this service; it’s a great outreach. So many people love it.”
