Given the size of the East Acton ward, it’s not surprising that we have a wide variety of places of worship – including two Anglican churches (St Dunstans and St Gabriels) , St Aidans Catholic, Old Oak Methodist (of which I'm a member), East Acton Baptist (Network), and a number of evangelical churches who hold their Sunday services in schools or warehouses. I try to attend each of them at least annually to keep in touch with the Christian community. In addition, I obviously also visit the local mosque, synagogue, gurdwara and mandir – although none of these are actually located in East Acton ward.
St Dunstans is the Anglican church covering the East Acton part of the ward, and a few years ago also merged with St Thomas’ which was the Acton Vale Anglican church. This morning was the Harvest Festival, and local minister Rev James Blandford-Baker turned it into a service inspired by the work of the WaterAid charity. An appropriate bible reading (Isaiah 41.17-20 - “The poor and needy search for water, but there is none”) w
as accompanied by a water-themed slide show , and the church was decorated with cardboard water droplets and a man-made river flowing over the pulpit. James talked about some of the stark facts upon which WaterAid campaign – such as that 1 in 5 of the world’s population lack access to a safe water supply, whilst Mozambique uses less than a tenth of the water per day of that consumed in England. An excellent service, which matched faith and community in proper measure.'The water of life' over the pulpit
We also hold a monthly East Acton Councillors advice surgery after the service at St Dunstans, which today as usual was taken by my colleague (and Anglican) Cllr Kate Crawford, while I had useful chats with James and his curate Rev Maggie Davidge-Smith about local issues. St Dunstans was one of the first churches locally with its own website, which can be seen at www.stdunstanschurch.org.uk
Spent the afternoon in a Labour Party fund-raising social at my friends’ Amanda and Roger’s, and ended the day with a couple of good pints of Fullers Discovery in the Kings Arms in The Vale
We also hold a monthly East Acton Councillors advice surgery after the service at St Dunstans, which today as usual was taken by my colleague (and Anglican) Cllr Kate Crawford, while I had useful chats with James and his curate Rev Maggie Davidge-Smith about local issues. St Dunstans was one of the first churches locally with its own website, which can be seen at www.stdunstanschurch.org.uk
Spent the afternoon in a Labour Party fund-raising social at my friends’ Amanda and Roger’s, and ended the day with a couple of good pints of Fullers Discovery in the Kings Arms in The Vale
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