Harvest Festival at Thackley

We celebrated our Harvest Festival on 4 October and what an amazing service it was. Many of our community groups had decorated our windows with Harvest displays and the church was almost full, with lots of mums and tots from See and Know, mums and Brownies, and Guides. As is the way at Thackley, there was an air of flexibility about the service, with many last minute additions/deletions to accommodate various traditions, which included parading the flags, offering Harvest Gifts for CAP UK, our jam pan clatter for Water Aid and our monthly birthday box.

It was a delight to have the little ones from See and Know sing one of their songs and empty their Smarties tubes of change into the clatter.

What is this clatter? In the run up to Harvest, we collect jam jars of change and make a “clatter” as we pour them into the metal jam pan. Last year the jam jars that clattered into the Water Aid jam-pan added up to £134.63. Gift aid tax recovery at £6.66 increased the total to £141.29. This year we knew that we had raised an excellent total, because the jam pan was too heavy to lift! Amongst other coins it contained 2,672 pennies, 1,604 tuppences and 688 5ps, contributing to a total of £212.36. To this we can add a tax recovery of £10.70, making a fantastic sum of £223.06! Sincere thanks to John and Margaret V for counting all those coins!

Huge thanks to Peter J for leading such an amazing service. Earlier in the year, he’d asked if he could come back in October for a dip into the birthday box – he might be more careful what he asks for in future! It really was a wonderful community celebration.

Ruth W

Thackley

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