Month: September 2017

On Sunday 1 October St Columba’s Church, Pont Street is hosting an event in the Reformation series.  At 4 pm they are showing pictures and music about the Scottish Reformation, followed at 5 pm by the evening service and at 6 pm by tea and Scottish shortbread.  All are welcome.  And at 12 noon on Tuesday 31 October there is a service at Westminster Abbey, led by the Dean, with an address by the Archbishop of Canterbury.  For free tickets, see http://www.westminster-abbey.org/worship/reformation.  This will be followed by a symposium, Liberated by God’s grace: 1517 – 2017: 500 Years of Reformation, from 2.30 to 5 pm in St Margaret’s Church.

A Pilates class will be starting on Monday evenings from 6 – 7pm in the church hall.  Further details can be found at www.bkhpilates.co.uk

This year’s Christmas Market will be held in the hall on Saturday 18 November from 11.30 am to 3.30 pm.  Our famous home baking, jams, preserves and tablet will be on sale as usual, together with gifts, crafts, and plants.  There will be games and competitions with prizes and the ever-popular lucky numbers stall, and we have it on good authority that a visitor from Lapland has been booked!  Ploughman’s lunches, tea, coffee and cakes will be available at any time all day, so you won’t go hungry!

Please put the date in your diary and come along to support this event in the church calendar.  We will be looking for people to help man the stalls, serve refreshments, contribute baking for the cake stall and the teas, hand out fliers in Covent Garden Piazza and other necessary tasks.  And if you have any other ideas for the Market, please speak to the Church Secretary.

Led by St Columba’s Church, Pont Street, a number of Scottish organisations in London are planning a series of events between September and November 2018 to mark the end of World War I.

In addition to lectures, a ceilidh, a special service of commemoration and various other events, a book is being published about Scots in London during the war, which includes a chapter by each organisation.  Together with the Minister, Sheena Tait represents Crown Court on the organising committee, and she is producing our chapter in the book.  The Princess Royal has agreed to contribute the foreword to the book.  Further details about the book and all the events will be available in due course.

Our Harvest Festival service will be held on Sunday 8 October and will take the form of all-age worship.  Once again this year we are asking you to bring gifts of food or money to support the Westminster Food Bank, based at Westminster Chapel.

The food bank provides three days’ worth of nutritionally balanced (non-perishable) food, through a voucher scheme, to residents of Westminster who are experiencing financial crisis .  This is done in partnership with front-line care professionals who identify people in need and give vouchers.  People can also be referred on to other agencies where appropriate.

The Food Bank publishes a list of items which are acceptable which is included below.  Items should be unopened and undamaged and have a “best before” date at least three months away.

In past years you have been very generous in your donations to support this service to those who live in Westminster and find themselves in crisis.  We hope that you will give generously again this year.

Please bring only items listed below.

Fruit juice (long-life carton)
Fruit (tinned)
Vegetables (tinned)
Sugar (250g or 500g)
Milk (UHT or powdered)
Tomatoes (tinned)
Rice pudding (tinned)
Sponge pudding (tinned)
Instant mashed potato
Biscuits or snack bars
Pasta sauces (jar)
Soup (tinned)
Meat/fish (tinned)
Rice
Pasta
Jam
Pulses (tinned) eg kidney beans, lentils
Tea bags
Instant coffee
Cereals (not whole-wheat biscuits)
Cooking oil (250 ml)

Please check that items are unopened and undamaged and have a best-before date at least three months away.