St Faith's Late Summer Concert 2009

St Faith's Harvest Weekend

It was a busy but hugely enjoyable weekend for the members of St. Faith’s recently as they celebrated three events connected to Harvest.

The first was the Harvest Supper. Every seat was taken and those attending sat down to jacket potatoes, sausages, baked beans and mixed vegetables, followed by fruit crumble with ice cream. Everyone enjoyed themselves immensely which was evident by the conversation, laughter and sheer fun people were having. The table flower arrangements, skilfully arranged by Mavis Duffin were raffled and all of the profits from the evening went to the Bishop’s Harvest Appeal. The Fellowship Committee worked very hard to make the meal enjoyable and special thanks must go to Joan Worboys and Mary Goose.

The second event was the Late Summer Concert which followed immediately after the harvest meal. People entertained each other with singing, poetry and music.

There were over 18 acts and far too many to mention each individually but I would like to single out a couple. As in previous years Margaret Watson and Elizabeth Hill started the second half of the programme with their traditional song with alternative words. This year they chose to focus on the painting of the church dressed as painters and every ear was strained as the audience listened in case their name was mentioned. Considerable secrecy surrounds the practising of their song in the lead up to the concert and my own son even ‘suggested’ I went out one afternoon so they could rehearse at my house! It is evident from the performance that Elizabeth and Margaret have so much fun writing, practising and working out all the various combinations and their special song is one of the highlights every year.

Another class act was Arthur Harris who sang ‘If I ruled the world’ made famous by Sir Harry Secombe. In the programme a typo had changed his name to ‘Happy’ Secombe which unintentionally summed up the whole evening actually, a really happy event. The overall standard of all the performances was very high and it brought a lot of enjoyment to the audience. It also demonstrates the wealth of talent existing in a relatively small community.

Special thanks must go to Lorna Kisby, Gordon Hewer and Philip Mitchell for their various roles in running the event. A retiring collection raised money for the windows appeal which now stands at £9100, only another £900 to go and all in the space of 9 months.

The last event was our Harvest Festival on the Sunday, when St. Faith’s Music Group run by Dave Page played and we had various organisations attend and parade into the opening hymn. The church was packed and everyone had brought items to share and these were later given to the North Herts Sanctuary. The choir sang John Rutter’s ‘For the Beauty of the Earth’ whilst communion was taken and the collection went to the Bishop’s Harvest Appeal.

So all in all it was a rather exhausting but thoroughly worthwhile and fun weekend but I also noticed one common thread which ran through all three. Obviously there were many church members present but it was also surprising how many people there were not regular attendees at the church. The message that activities were going on at St. Faith’s is clearly getting through to those who live in the Walsworth area and further afield and to me this helps to demonstrate that St. Faith’s is as much a mission church today as it was when it was first built, and continues to fulfill its original conception.

Tim Mitchell

Contact Sub-editor’s note: One of my abiding memories of the concert will be that of our sacristan, Dorreen Peacock, (THE DANCING QUEEN), bedecked in red sequins and attended by no less than two handsome young men, as she danced the starring role, whilst the Clergy, Readers, and Wardens also suitable dressed (ABBA & Co) performed to the hit record “The Dancing Queen