St Mary’s the Less Allerton Bywater have been helping make their community feel more connected to their church with a new space for events, organised with the support of our Children, Young People and Families Team.
‘Your Space’ is a Saturday morning session that looks to help people engage with faith by building relationships with people more loosely connected with St Mary’s.
Events run at 'Your Space' have included a 'Teddy Bears Picnic', an 'Abba sing-along', a coffee morning, Christmas Crafts, a litter pick in partnership with the local community centre and a VE Day celebration, among many others.
Following engagement with 'Your Space', one of the families has come back to church, having left previously, and there are two baptisms and two confirmations planned.
The Revd Jo Medhurst, curate at the church, helped to organise ‘Your Space’ and said: “I think it’s essential we have ‘Your Space’ running in our church, making a space that acts as a bridge for people who don’t know church well to come in.
“It’s really benefitted people in church, as they have come to better know the people in their community, and it’s opened the community up to what the church can offer them.
“It’s been a great way to put into practice the idea of watching for what the Holy Spirit is doing already and joining in.
“Aimi from the diocesan team was great in helping deliver our ideas, getting them out of our heads and bringing them to life by helping us build the sessions without changing the core of what we wanted to do.
“I’d encourage anyone who wants to do something like this to take advantage of the free resource of the diocesan team!”
Revd Jo started ‘Your Space’ with help from our Children, Young People and Families Team, who supported the team with developing their plans for the sessions, bringing them to life in a way that was practical and safe.
The team are now chatting with Revd Jo about training for intergenerational worship, which is hoped to start soon.
To find out more about what the team can offer support with, please click here.