Ed Veale, Pastoral Assistant at St Nicholas Church in Tooting, on how their Harvest Celebration will help Wandsworth Foodbank and how they’re celebrating Tootopia!

On Sunday 23 September 2018, we’re hosting a day of events at St Nicholas Church for all the community in Tooting, as part of this year’s Tootopia weekend (www.stnicholastooting.org.uk/tootopia).

We’re looking forward to our annual Harvest Celebration All-Age Service in the morning (10.30am) – in which we give thanks for all the many gifts we’ve each been given: food on our table each day; family and friends to journey through life together with; perhaps sports we love to play or walks on Tooting Common. We have much to be thankful for, and Harvest is a great opportunity to remember the wonder of creation. In busy urban London, we sometimes find that it can be easy to forget all the growing, harvesting, and care which happens to enable the food we buy to actually reach the grocery or supermarket shelves.

At St Nicholas we also want to remember our responsibility to support those in our community who struggle to put food on the table; 1 in 5 of the UK’s population lives below the poverty line. And so again, this Harvest, we’re supporting the Wandsworth Foodbank (a charity which seeks to provide those in crisis with emergency food supplies). We very much welcome donations (see https://wandsworth.foodbank.org.uk/give-help/donate-food/), and everyone’s invited to come along to our Celebration Service, and to bring any food donations if they would like to.

Our Harvest Celebration, like all our services, is suitable for everyone – for those who are unsure about faith, sceptics, or committed Christians alike. It will last less than an hour, be full of fun child-friendly songs, and there will be a short Bible talk about our generous God…and lots of fresh coffee and cake!
 

In the afternoon we have our first ever Jazz on the Lawn event, featuring professional musicians from Roots of Jazz. With tea and homemade cake, deckchairs, local food stalls (including Juici Jerk) and an ice-cream van, this will be a chilled afternoon to blow away the early autumn blues. Everyone from Tooting and beyond is welcome to come along with friends and family, with a picnic rug, to enjoy the relaxed Tootopia vibes (we will be indoors if there are any September showers!). Children will be able to enjoy top entertainment, too, from Captain Cutlass.

It’s free entry and one not to be missed! It runs from 2.30-4.30pm – the more the merrier!

Check us out www.stnicholastooting.org.uk, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

This article would not be possible without the support of our fantastic Community Partners. Click here to find out more.
 

This article would not be possible without the support of our fantastic Community Partners. Click here to find out more.