This Sunday is our Harvest Festival Sunday. It is the culmination of the Season of Creation we have been observing for the last few weeks. In our Parish Communion service we wilt be singing some of the well-known Harvest hymns.
So this Sunday we invite you to bring non-perishable food items to any of our services. The food collected will be taken to Wokingham Foodbank to help meet the needs of households facing the hard choice between paying the bills or eating. You may have seen the recent media report about the increasing number of requests for help coming to Wokingham Foodbank. The media were no doubt interested because Wokingham has the reputation of being a prosperous area. Yet there are still many families increasingly finding it hard to make ends meet.
Please do check on this link the items that the Foodbank needs most of all right now. Currently pasta and baked beans are not needed as stocks of these items are already high.
After the morning services there will be a simple – but delicious! – Harvest lunch. There is no charge but donations are invited to the USPG Harvest Appeal. This is an Anglican mission agency working with dioceses and parishes across the Anglican Communion to support vulnerable people. This year’s Harvest Appeal is “Growing Futures” supporting The Anglican Council of Malawi’s food security and nutrition programme, helping to ensure low resourced smallholders and vulnerable children in rural communities have enough nutrition to sustain them. Malawi is the 4th poorest country in the world. The average income per person per year is about £1000, many of course will be living on much less. Please give as you feel able – even if you are not attending the services or the lunch your Harvest gifts of food or money are welcome! (The Parish Office will be open to receive both kinds of gifts on Monday morning)
Thank you
Canon David Hodgson
