October 2021 – Stoke Poges Church Blog

As Harvest Festival rolled round again, things felt almost normal – our theme was “look back with thanks and forward with joy”

As if to emphasise that we should take nothing for granted, Natasha was taken ill last week so Simon McDowell led our Sunday service and in the evening, a whole team was required to stand in at the Harvest Supper.

The flower team once again came up with some stunning arrangements at St Giles’ and the tenacious gardeners among the congregation brought beautiful produce, including for the first time, veg from our Ecogarden. We broadened our harvest offerings this year from the usual tins of beans and chocolate biscuits to provide the specific things that our partner charity, Slough Homeless Our Concern (SHOC) requested. These were all gratefully received on Monday morning when we delivered direct to their centre in Ragstone Road, Slough.

We were delighted to welcome the Brownies and their families to Harvest Festival who did a great job of processing forward with their flag and collecting it at the end.

The Ecogarden marrows were not left naked – they were transformed by our junior church crew into furry, glittery creatures ready for their big moment at the auction.

The evening proceedings were led by Nigel Lowe, aided and abetted by Jon Homan auctioning the produce and the catering team. As well as the marrows and lots of other produce, the auction included a beautiful pumpkin from the Ecogarden and “four candles”, raising £434 in total. The monetary offering both in the plate and via the app this Sunday also went to SHOC. In addition to this, the church gives a proportion of its annual income to SHOC (and NLT) as explained at the APCM. As you can imagine, they have had many extra challenges over the last two years and our help has never been more essential.

Thank you all for your contributions.