A Huddersfield church has opened a pop up shop in a nearby shopping centre as part of its month long initiative to take church out to the people who pass by.
It is the third year the team from Huddersfield Parish Church has opened up in an empty shop in the nearby Packhorse Shopping Centre as part of its outreach and harvest festival initiative.
Vicar, the Revd Canon Simon Moor said: “It’s the conversation and making relationships which is the most important part of this – and we use it as a collection goods for our Harvest on Sunday which we donate to the Methodist Welcome Centre for the homeless and more vulnerable families.”
The first day (Mon) the shop took a whopping £600 and the church team hope to raise more than £2,000 over the week which will be divided between fundraising and charitable giving.
It started at the beginning of September with a monthly coffee gathering where church members gathered outside the church just off the town centre to sell books, offer refreshments and just chat.
This Saturday, the Bishop of Huddersfield, Bishop Jonathan will do a stint in the shop and the team will run their monthly coffee gathering there too.
Vicar, Simon Moor said last year’s efforts found that, as well as fundraising, there were two major spin offs to the week. Firstly, that the exercise involved the whole of St Peter’s family - people donated goods, carried boxes to and from, helped to sell in the shop, came to have a look.
And secondly, the mission part of the work, was much bigger than the team had first anticipated.
Said Simon: “Many conversations took place about the church building, our Saturday coffee mornings, “Back to Church Sunday” and the shop itself.
“Many passing folk just wanted to stay and chat – and while we might never know how many people were touched by our efforts, it was very clear that we should not underestimate this aspect of the week’s work,” he said.
The shop is open in the Packhorse Shopping Centre until Saturday at 4pm. All are welcome.