Spring Harvest is an inter-denominational

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...

conference and gathering in the United Kingdom that started in 1979. The festival arose in the late 1970s at a time when evangelicalism was growing in the UK and there was uncertainty as to how that movement would relate with

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

and evangelicals within it; the event, among few others at the time, welcomed all evangelical Christians, including people within and outside the

charismatic movement The charismatic movement in Christianity is a movement within established or mainstream Christian denominations to adopt beliefs and practices of Charismatic Christianity with an emphasis on baptism with the Holy Spirit, and the use of spirit ...

. Hylson-Smith comments that non-denominational activities such as Spring Harvest did much to encourage pan-evangelicalism which tended to minimise historical differences between denominations Its stated aims are to "equip the Church for action" through a range of events, conferences, books and resources. The tone is generally evangelical with modern worship music, workshops and Bible study groups.

History

The event was first held in 1979 for one week at

Prestatyn Prestatyn is a seaside town and community in Denbighshire, Wales. Historically a part of Flintshire, it is located on the Irish Sea coast, to the east of Rhyl. Prestatyn has a population of 19,085, History Prehistory There is evidence that the ...

, North Wales. In 1986 the event moved to Butlins

Minehead Minehead is a coastal town and civil parish in Somerset, England. It lies on the south bank of the Bristol Channel, north-west of the county town of Taunton, from the boundary with the county of Devon and in proximity of the Exmoor National P ...

and then in 1987 it moved to

Skegness Skegness ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the East Lindsey District of Lincolnshire, England. On the Lincolnshire coast of the North Sea, the town is east of Lincoln and north-east of Boston. With a population of 19,579 as of 2011, i ...

. Attendance passed the 50,000 mark in 1988 and the following year it was also held at Butlin's

Ayr Ayr (; sco, Ayr; gd, Inbhir Àir, "Mouth of the River Ayr") is a town situated on the southwest coast of Scotland. It is the administrative centre of the South Ayrshire council area and the historic county town of Ayrshire. With a population ...

, Scotland. By 2010 the event had been reduced by a week from the previous year, and the 2011 attendance was approximately 28,000 people From 2012, there were three Minehead weeks and one Skegness week. From 2014 to 2017 the events continued to reduce in length. In 2018 Harrogate Convention Centre was first used as a venue.

Worship Music Production and Media Coverage

Recordings of parts of the event sometimes appears on British TV such as the BBC programme ''

Songs of Praise ''Songs of Praise'' is a BBC Television religious programme that presents Christian hymns sung in churches of varying denominations from around the UK. The series was first broadcast in October 1961. On that occasion, the venue was the Ta ...

''. In most years up to 2020, CDs of the associated songs are published. From 2022 this moved to Spotify.

References

External links

* {{official website, springharvest.org Evangelical Christian conferences Christian events Christian festivals and holy days