With Mitzvah Day approaching next month, Stanmore & Canons Park Synagogue kicked off with an interfaith gardening project that put its theme of ‘Stronger Together’ into action.
40 volunteers worked together on jobs including weeding, raking, sweeping, clearing and tidying the overgrown flower beds in the walled rose garden, in order to get everything ready for the winter months ahead and then planting next year.
Those taking part included members of Stanmore & Canons Park Synagogue, Mosaic Liberal Synagogue, Kenton Swaminarayan Hindu Temple, St William of York Roman Catholic Church, Harrow Interfaith and the Friends of Canons Park, as well as Bob Blackman MP, Cllr Ameet Jogia MBE and Cllr Kantilal Rabadia. The project gave the opportunity for the volunteers of different religions to spend time getting to know each other – re-establishing old friendships and sparking new ones.
Stanmore and Canons Park Synagogue’s Corinne Linskell, who was the Project Coordinator, said: “This interfaith gardening project was a special way to kick off our Mitzvah Day activities. With so many faith groups working together on behalf of the local community, we were much ’Stronger Together’, achieving what we could not do on our own. This is such a rewarding, positive and enriching initiative to be part of.”
Bob Blackman, MP for Harrow East and Chair of the 1922 Committee, said: “Mitzvah Day is brilliant because it brings the whole community together to do things they may not usually be doing. Today, we had a whole group of volunteers, from many different backgrounds, unite to make this garden look beautiful.”
Speaking on behalf of St William of York RC Church, Lisa Harris said: “One of the greatest Commandments is to love one another. We show this in doing little or even big things together. As this wonderful Interfaith Mitzvah Day project has shown, we are all ‘Stronger Together’.”
The leaders of the other faith groups present all reflected on the importance of being together and the fundamental principle that all religions share to make the world a better place.
