Happenings at St. James

St James at Harewood is getting back into full swing after a busy end to the year, the most exciting new activity being the “St James on Friday”, an After School Programme, drawing children from the nearby Harewood School and community. This is the brainchild of Maurice and Lesley Reynolds, who with the support of parishioners, took a stall at Harewood School Market Day last November and raised nearly $500 to purchase ukuleles to kickstart this project.

After a pilot programme on 28 November with Christmas craft and music activities was very well received. Maurice and Lesley and their team of helpers decided to go ahead with plans to run the programme on the first and third Fridays of the month during the school term. The children attend for an hour and during that time are given afternoon tea, play a game, have a song, and then split into craft and ukulele groups, and finally are brought back together with another song. The feedback we have had from parents is that the children are enjoying theirselves as are all the helpers.

Another outreach from St James is hosting Age Concern visitors to afternoon teas on their outings, on the last Friday of alternate months. Volunteers to go on a roster to help provide and serve teas would be much appreciated. The next tea at St James will be in May.

As well as worshipping together, St James folk always enjoy socializing together. Last year ended with the shared lunch at the Sundstrum’s home in Cust – this has become a recognised annual event now with 35–40 enjoying lunch in the lovely garden (the sun always shines in Cust) and singing carols led by the St James choir with the birds adding their own songs of praise. So far this year we have had a barbecue, a meal at the Papanui WMC with a pot luck get-together planned for the end of March.