Alison Dalton began working as a Church Related Community Worker (CRCW) for the Sunderland and Boldon United Reformed Church Partnership in July 2020 during the COVID pandemic. Here she reflects on how daunting it has been to start a new role without having a chance to meet anyone in person and the challenges this has involved.

My husband and I moved to Sunderland, a place we had never visited, to a home we had never physically seen, to serve people we had never actually met, in person. Can you imagine not just encountering those you know, those you work with on a screen, but rather encountering those you want to get to know, listen to, and understand on a screen or through a phone, without those previous physical encounters?

Life online

As many of you will be aware, this weekend is the General Assembly of the United Reformed Church. It's another landmark Assembly because it will be held completely online for a second time due to the pandemic. 

As someone who just about manages with technology, I find it hard to imagine how complicated it must be to host such a gathering, a gathering of over 280 individuals, many of whom, like me, have only begun to use these tools so that we could continue to function in our roles, to interact with people, including those we love, during this pandemic.

While in the last lockdown, I found myself, with others, musing over what is key to the ministry of Church Related Community Work, to try to adjust my way of working to each stage of the pandemic.

I do not envy any of those who will be enabling us to meet, to function as close to our usual pattern as is possible, in these strange times, but I am incredibly grateful to them and those who have developed the technology we will use.

However, as I have read the papers (there are many!) I have found myself feeling very blessed to have been included in this ground-breaking Assembly. I am surprised and gratified to find that some of my own thinking is mirrored by those who lead our denomination, though I could never have expressed myself so well! You may want to read the full text of our General Secretary's initial letter to Assembly (PDF | 37kb).

There was a lot that struck me as I read, but especially this:

It has been a time of immense change in all our lives, and in the life of the church. It is not only a time of great change, but a liminal moment: a moment when different futures become possible. It is a moment of the now and the not yet, when as I write, I do not know the precise context the pandemic will shape for us by the time we meet. Our faith speaks powerfully into liminal moments and moments of change and transition. They are moments that the Holy Spirit can be experienced as at work in profound ways.

Since last July when Dave and I moved to serve the Sunderland and Boldon United Reformed Church Partnership, perhaps I and the churches who make up this partnership have been in a liminal moment? I have found myself, with others, needing to think about how, or even, if this ministry could begin. After all, as I understand and practise this ministry, it is all about listening and understanding people while building relationships, networks, and partnerships.

Making connections

Of course, this is just where we find ourselves. One of the ways I have adapted to this situation is to paint and deliver, in a Covid-19  secure manner, almost 150 pebble labyrinths, walking many miles across Sunderland and Boldon in the process.

This was a way of trying to make a physical connection with those I serve, as individuals. However, due to the last two lockdowns it has taken me a whole year to achieve this!

During the last lockdown, I found myself, with others, musing over what is key to the ministry of Church Related Community Work, to try to adjust my way of working to each stage of the pandemic.

This has led to the reflections below, which I hope you may find thought-provoking and helpful as the work of this ministry is not so much about what we do but rather how we do it.

Unconditional love

At the heart of my personal calling as a CRCW is my belief in a God that offers every one of us the gift of unconditional love. My sense of being called to the Sunderland and Boldon United Reformed Church Partnership is to enable the churches, the individuals within them, and the communities they serve to share that unconditional love in very practical ways.

With experience, I have learned that the best way to achieve this is through relationships, networks, and partnerships, hence the quandary I have found myself in. However, I find myself unable to move from the real need to listen, initially, to those I serve, to appreciate their gifts, hopes, dreams, and to understand their culture.

At the heart of my personal calling as a CRCW is my belief in a God that offers every one of us the gift of unconditional love.

To then move on to do the same in the wider community, or rather communities. I am working differently to try to achieve this now as I have done so during this year. However, everything seems to be taking much longer and I am unsure how much I have really heard, as hearing people’s stories is so much more fruitful than reading old newsletters, histories, dry documents, reports and statistics, important as they may be.

I am grateful to those who have been part of the Steering Group and the churches, including our Minister of Word and Sacrament, all of whom have listened and guided me as I have endeavoured to hear God, sense each church’s mission, willingness, and capacity before feeling able to find a way for us to journey together.

I feel though, a year on, I am still in this place of listening and learning. As I and the churches begin our journey together over the next few years, I hope I will be able to come alongside people to enable them to make their hopes, their dreams a reality, if it is God’s mission for them. I look forward to discerning that with them!

This journeying, empowering others, being a catalyst, but not doing for, rather being alongside of, is at the heart of all community development, whether that community is one of place, a neighbourhood, one of belief or interest or need, such as a church, gender, race, homelessness, disability, etc.

Due to my life experiences and my understanding of Christianity, I try even harder to hear the voices who are often not heard, drowned out by those who know how to articulate things, who hold power and/or privilege even if they are not aware of it themselves, me included!

So ultimately, I currently believe, I have come to the Sunderland and Boldon United Reformed Church Partnership to serve all the churches, as their CRCW by:

• Helping us all share God’s unconditional love. 
• Undertaking a process of listening, understanding and consultation, which will be ongoing throughout my time here. 
• Helping those I serve to achieve their mission, their hopes and maybe even their dreams. 
• Ensuring that anything concrete which develops from this process is sustainable. 
• Leaving.

But those goals will only be achievable if it is offered with the love and support of those I hope to serve across the Sunderland and Boldon United Reformed Church Partnership and through the grace of God.

Journeying together

So, perhaps I will be in this liminal place, this uncomfortable, challenging place of not knowing for a lot longer yet, as things are continuing to change. Perhaps General Assembly this week will help me, will help us all, understand that this liminal place will be with is for a longer still, or as John Bradbury said in his letter later:

‘…we know in our bones that nothing will ever be quite the same again, just as we also know the power of the allure of the familiar. We cannot guess at the shape we will be as a Church in five years’ time, never mind ten, never mind the church we will hand to the care of the generations who come after us. And yet, in the midst of that uncertainty, we know that Christ calls us to be his disciples, to follow the promptings of the Spirit, and to live and proclaim good news for the whole of creation. We know that God does not abandon God’s people but reshapes and restores them in ways the human mind can barely fathom.’

What a gift you have given me to allow me to attend this Assembly, thank you! I am grateful to be part of the discussions which will enable us all to share the unconditional love of God at this critical moment for the Sunderland and Boldon United Reformed Church Partnership, for the Northern Synod, the United Reformed Church, and for myself!

I hope to meet you someday soon, may God bless you and yours, Alison

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Find out more about Church Related Community Work 

If you would like to find out more about Church Related Community Work and how you can become an agent of social change, contact the CRCW office by email for more information.