Promoting community spaces in our churches

ONE OF THE CENTRAL TENETS of our faith and our presence in our parishes is to bless our communities.

Countering isolation, stress, burnout and other mental heath challenges is becoming increasingly important in our society.

• According to the Office of National Statistics, in 2022, almost half the UK adult population reported feelings of loneliness.
• Out of these, nearly 4 million people reported feeling lonely “often or always”.
• Another report showed that around one in 5 adults needed time off work due to stress last year.

Many churches and parishes work to address this, setting up community spaces where people can come together in an unpressured, relaxed environment. This may be for older people, for young parents, for men or women, or just a community café with no restrictions on age, stage or gender.

Are these effective? Can we do better?

Several years ago, church leader Ruth Rice found herself at a crisis point in her life, beginning with “a long year of utter exhaustion and breakdown, a year of mental and emotional ill health that I thought only happened to other people.“

She needed to be signed off work, and felt like a failure. Ruth became increasingly isolated. Despite having been an active leader in her church, now she felt she couldn’t even attend their services and activities:

“I found church too hard to engage with; all those well-meaning questions and prayers. And I couldn’t read the Bible or pray. It all felt too much.”

As she moved through this time, God spoke to her in powerful ways, and she began to heal, with a focus on more contemplative habits, taking time to slow down and enjoy hobbies, going to the doctor, using rhythms of prayer. She began to dream:

“Of a place where anyone could happen upon a community of wellbeing, a space where it was OK not to be OK, where we could do hobbies together, enter prayerful rhythms together, and get advice off the record in a non-clinical setting.”

Out of this idea Renew Wellbeing was born: a new style of community space focussed on:

• Being prayerful
• Being present
• Being in partnership

These features counteracted some of the difficulties that other groups might pose to someone with mental health challenges. As a neutral space, anyone can attend. Helpers are trained to address people by name and people are encouraged to bring their hobbies to share with others. Sessions begin and end with an optional simple act of prayer, while partnerships with local GP surgeries, social prescribers and other services provide a way for attendees to find a route to help.

Renew Wellbeing spaces began to be established all over the country, with hundreds of centres in Baptist and Methodist churches, and a new movement within the Anglican church to be part of this calling too.

Could you play a part?

• Perhaps you have a community café already and you’d like to explore adapting it to the Renew Wellbeing model.
• Perhaps you have a foodbank or a Knit-and-Natter already and you’d like to add to this by having a Renew Wellbeing space on another day.
• Perhaps you’d like to partner with another existing centre, learning from them, and operating on another weekday, so that attendees can have multiple options for attending a centre every week.

We can help you

The Church is partnering with Renew Wellbeing over the next 12 months. If you fit our criteria, we can offer you:

• Setting up with Renew Wellbeing as an interested parish (no obligation)
• Initial training on a video call
• The resource manual posted to your parish in hard copy
• An in-person visit by the regional support worker to assist in the details of the setup
• Ongoing access to digital resources and training videos through the Renew Wellbeing website
• Connection to other Renew Wellbeing centres in your locality to share tips, tricks and resources, and for mutual encouragement and prayer

What’s the next step?

1. Look at our map of Anglican Renew Wellbeing centres to see if there are ones in your local area that you can visit. If there aren’t, maybe your church can step into the breach?
2. Read more about the Renew Wellbeing story.
3. Discover what Renew Wellbeing Cafes have been doing in Grantham and Sheffield.
4. Come to our webinar at 4pm on 1st May, and hear other leaders talk of their experience in running Renew Wellbeing cafes in their churches
5. Sign up to one of our training events on 13th May or 15th May.

Contact the Disability Project team for further questions and enquiries.