The United Reformed Church

CRCW – Mark Tubby

Weoley Castle Community Church wants to build on their long history of commitment to community ministry. They seek to connect with the lives of people in their community in worship by holding mid-week services and a monthly alternative worship service and helping to organise community events for Christian festivals, such as ‘Carols on the Square’ with local school children.  

CRCW Mark Tubby has started several initiatives, including Messy Church, a Junior Youth Club, Weoley Castle Youth Forum, an enhanced Church Newsletter, with a CRCW emphasis, and has been successful in raising funds for several youth and intergenerational projects. He has joined the Youth & Children’s Work committee and the Training committee for the Synod and has also responded to requests to advertise the importance of the CRCW role at other Churches and meetings. 

CRCW – Liz Kam

The overall aim of the CRCW post is to strengthen the capacity of Levenshulme Inspire URC to engage in mission and outreach within its local community and assist in developing a more strategic and co-ordinated approach to its community engagement.

Levenshulme URC used to be a small church with just eight members in a huge and dilapidated building and facing closure. However, the members felt they still had a mission calling to the neighbourhood and with the appointment of Ed Cox as pastoral adviser, they worked in consultation with community partners and developed the concept of the Levenshulme Inspire Project. Significant funding, over two million pounds, was secured over a period of time. While the bulk of the money raised came from the Lottery and Manchester City Council, the project was delighted when the local Mosque gave £52,000 for community work and the relationship between the Church and Mosque continues to flourish. On 30 October 2010 the new building and project opened to the public.

The whole enterprise is a partnership between the local church, Synod, active local residents and great Places Housing Association. There is a staff team of over 15 people and some 30+ volunteers who are managed through a Centre Management Team.

Liz is just coming to the end of her 5th year in post and she, in partnership with the wider organisation, continues to build relationships with centre users and local people. Her work with new arrivals also continues to develop well and careful reflection is enabling Liz and the wider organisation to ask itself challenging questions and learn more about its role in the local and wider community.

To find out about Levenshulme Inspire, click here: http://www.lev-inspire.org.uk/

To read an insightful article by Liz Kam, click here: Levenshulme Women's Group – A reflection by Liz Kam

CRCW – Simon Loveitt

The Manor Church and Community Project is an ecumenical project – Methodist, Anglican and United Reformed Church, working on the Manor & Castle electoral ward in SE Sheffield, a community ranked in the top 1% of the Government's indices of deprivation.

The vision is to work ecumenically, and in partnership with others who share their aims, to be agents of God’s transformation in the lives both of individuals and the community in the Manor area of Sheffield. The vision is based on their strong belief that the Church is called to be an agent of social change and a vehicle for establishing God’s Kingdom.

The project has already provided support and encouragement for local families and children on the Manor Estate in their faith and life journeys and to build their confidence to engage with church, schools and community. This area of work has been identified as a key priority by the local churches in consultation with other relevant community agencies.

Simon Loveitt who was called as a CRCW to the Manor Church and Community Project, began work on 1 September 2014 and is now in his second five-year term. His aim has been to build upon the already exiting initiatives, build new relationships, and to try and make a difference in the community, by addressing the many issues that present themselves. So far, key areas of work have included Financial Inclusion through work with the local Credit Union, Community Cohesion, tackling food poverty and the redevelopment of the Temple Park Centre.

Food poverty is an acute problem in the S2 ‘Manor’ area of Sheffield. The S2 Food Poverty Network is the local food bank and Simon is the food bank treasurer. Demand for the Foodbank significantly increased in 2020, due to Covid19. About three years ago, they also created a ‘Food Club’. So, after 12 weeks’ of using the Foodbank, and with the client, beginning to address their underlying reasons for using the foodbank, most clients move onto the Food Club – a transition from dependency to independence.

Simon has also administered the Covid-19 appeal for the Sheffield Foodbank Network, where £130,000 has been distributed to the 15 active Foodbanks within the network. For some this has been the difference of surviving or being overwhelmed by demand.

Another of their concerns is that Foodbanks are becoming ‘normalised’ and accepted as part of the fabric of society. That can’t be right. Campaigning forms an important part of our organisation; hence they are called the S2 Food Poverty Network, and not the S2 Foodbank.

The biggest achievement in 2020 has been the redevelopment of the Temple Park Centre into a multi-use community centre. £300,000 was secured from six funders, and despite the various lockdowns, the £300,000 redevelopment was able to be completed, on time, by the end of September 2020. Unfortunately, the official opening had to be cancelled due to the second national lockdown.

Read Simon's most recent CRCW reflection here.

For a fascinating read, please refer to: 25 Years of Creating Change in Communities written by CRCW Simon Loveitt.