The month leading up to Mitzvah Day – the UK’s largest faith-led day of social action – kicked off with an interfaith gardening project that really put its theme of ‘Stronger Together’ into action.
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.
Bob Blackman – MP for Harrow East and Chair of the 1922 Committee – took time out of organising the Conservative Party leadership contest to join in the green-fingered action. He 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.”
In total an inter-generational group of 40 people mucked in – working harmoniously together. Their 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.
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.
Reflecting on the ‘Stronger Together’ theme, Rabbi Rachel Benjamin of Mosaic Liberal Synagogue said: “This project is a microcosm of what we would like to see happening in the world – people from different communities coming together for good and worthy purposes, to talk to each other and to realise that we are all share a common humanity and can do so much more when we stand together.”
Project Co-ordinator Corinne Linskell, of Stanmore and Canons Park Synagogue, added: “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.”
The volunteers’ efforts were warmly welcomed by the Friends of Canons Park, whose Chair Sharon Graham described the day as “incredibly special and much appreciated”.
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.
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’.”
To register for this year’s Mitzvah Day, which will take place on and around Sunday 24 November 2024, please visit mitzvahday.org.uk.