Neighbourhood Chaplains Stories

360 Life Church Stockport Neighbourhood Chaplains Warm Spaces Story

Counties Neighbourhood Chaplains open their churches to local people who are having to choose between ‘heating or eating’ as cost-of-living crisis continues.

Helen Eadie is a Partner in the Community at 360Life Church in Stockport. Their Warm Space opened on 3 November from 10am to 9pm every Thursday. They offer a free soup and a roll at lunch time and an evening meal to anyone in need. They’ve had nearly 30 people through the doors so far.

Helen says: “We have one old lady who lives opposite the church who we’ve invited many times, but she’s never come. But since we started Warm Spaces, she comes every week. She told us: ‘I need this. I have been going to bed at seven o’clock in the evening, turning the lights off and getting under the covers just to keep warm’.”

Helen says they have seen numbers increasing every week: “Three weeks ago we had a single mum come in. She’s just moved back to this area. She just walked in and said: ‘My house is so cold. We’ve got no carpets and no curtains in many rooms. And I just saw this and I wanted to come in’. She came in and spent the whole day with us and picked up her daughter from school and brought her back for her tea. We helped her daughter who was struggling with her maths homework, and they’ve been back every week since.”

Brinnington Community Church Chaplains Warm Spaces Story

Martin Korchinsky is a Counties Neighbourhood Chaplain, and Pastor of Brinnington Community Church, in Stockport. The church is based on the edge of a council estate with just under 10,000 residents.

As the cost-of-living crisis has started to hit many families – especially the poorest - Martin saw there was a real need for support with just the basics – warmth and food.

As part of the Neighbourhood Chaplains initiative, the church opened their ‘Warm Space’ on 7 November - every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, between 1100 and 1600 serving a free hot meal, tea and coffee.

Martin says they get around 30 people through their doors every day.

Martin’s says “It looks increasingly likely that families and individuals will need to make choices this winter about whether their heating stays on or the shopping gets done. Hopefully, local people won’t have to face the Hobson’s choice of ‘heating or eating’.”

Such has been the demand – which is increasing weekly – that Age UK have teamed up and looking for ways to provide extra funding and help pensioners who are isolated.

“We have four ladies who have a whole day out now as they go to the local leisure centre for their breakfast – toast and tea. Then they come here for lunch and a get-together and finally go back to the leisure centre for an evening activity and snacks. So, they don’t have to worry about anything – they are fed and kept warm for the whole day.”

Tile Kiln Church, Chelmsford Chaplains Warm Spaces Story

James Bell a Neighbourhood Chaplain and Youth and Community Chaplain at Tile Kiln Church in Chelmsford.

The church was already running a coffee morning every day but extended it as a Warm Space running from 9:15 to 1200 so mums can pop in after dropping their children off from school.

James says the number of pensioners has also doubled since they advertised the coffee morning as a ‘Warm Space’:

“We have one old lady who comes in who is heating the space she is in when she is at home. I don’t know if she’s got a heated blanket or a fire, but I know she’s heating the person rather than heating the house.”

The church has even started the novel idea of advertising Sunday morning as a ‘Warm Space’. James says:

“People who come in don’t have to engage with the service, but it is open to the public and it is a warm space. We don’t make any secret about it. They can sit at the back and join us for tea and coffee afterwards.”

Tile Kiln Church is hoping to extend the scheme in January and open up a Warm Space on Thursday evenings. They hope to offer free soup and rolls, free WIFI, and refreshments. They are currently in talks with their local Tesco and cash and carry.

New Life Church’s Neighbourhood Chaplains Baptism Story

New Life Church’s Neighbourhood Chaplains team has expanded as Wola has trained some more church members at Emerson Park, Romford. We also have some new believers amongst us who have recently come to faith, including one who we connected with through Neighbourhood Chaplains.

Chris was miraculously saved and his baptism service was in December 2021. He was very happy and excited and invited his friends and some family members to the service.

We are signposting other organisations to provide the help that we are not equipped to give. We recently had a visit from a Christians against Poverty (CAP) speaker which was most moving, this has encouraged us, even more, to reach out to our community.

The church has been split into home groups with at least one Neighbourhood Chaplain or two in each group to help push out our outreach vision, we have made each group responsible for prayer and outreach for specific areas of our community. We trust God to do a lot more praying this month with a view to doing an all-church outreach campaign very soon.

Marcus Rashford & Neighbourhood Chaplains

If you can’t see the connection between this Man Utd footballer and Neighbourhood Chaplains that is not surprising. But there is one in Gloucester and possibly elsewhere. For its Rashford who has been the very prominent face behind the push to get the government to provide meals in the school holidays to children who are entitled to free school meals in term time. And as its not Rashford who does the cooking and serving that’s where the Neighbourhood Chaplains team at Abbey Church in Gloucester got involved.

This was an even bigger challenge not least because Covid cases were rocketing and mixing with lots of children and families meant there was a real risk that some of our own family Christmases could be sabotaged if we caught it. But we felt we should proceed. So for two days we served a Christmas meal with all the trimmings, enjoyed craft activities, played games. And to top it all we were delighted that Paul Wilmott – a Counties evangelist and members of Amblecote Christian Centre, who works in schools and on TV – came along with his TV friends Kato and Twist and made us all laugh and shared the Christmas message. It was a great time. We could see God’s hand in so many different ways. And by the way no one caught Covid. Next up is the Easter holiday program as we look to continue to build our links with these families.

Andrew Conlan – Partnership Regional Co-ordinator South West