Here are the reports presented to the Churches Together in Felixstowe AGM and Forum on 12th May. They make encouraging reading.
Academy Chaplaincy Update from Boost
In
September 2014 we launched a new chaplaincy partnership with
Felixstowe Academy. Thank you for your support. This project has
opened up many opportunities and is gaining recognition at a regional
and national level, and remains the first partnership of its kind in
Britain.
Josh
has been involved in a number of new events at the academy as well as
offering pastoral support and contributing to assemblies and lessons
on a regular basis. Feedback from staff and students has been
overwhelmingly positive, as seen at Josh’s commissioning service at
the academy with Bishop David before Easter.
Finance
remains a challenge for us. The academy are unable to contribute to
the funding of this role and although we have seen support grow
recently we still need more regular giving to make sure this project
is sustainable long term.
With
the potential of interacting with 1,300 students on a daily basis,
Academy Chaplaincy is not only good value, but also is leading the
way in creative partnerships between churches and schools, and
rediscovering what modern youth work and ministry looks like.
Thank
you for your continued interest and please do support us if you are
able.
Walton Parish Nursing
We
had a particularly successful information morning during Unity Week.
Marilyn
Flower stepped down as our Parish Nurse OT at the end of April as she
prepares to relocate to Bournemouth. So we are recruiting for
another Parish Nurse, preferably with community psychiatric nursing
experience, to join Lorna & the team (deadline for applications
is May 22nd).
Our
wonderful team of volunteers has grown to 19 which includes some from
churches outside Walton.
There
is a new drop-in health clinic at The Laydens Project, Langley
Avenue, which is proving popular.
Two
volunteers are to train as leaders for chair-based exercise classes
with a vision to start a second class in the near future.
We
have a dedicated Management Team & a set of Trustees that
includes the three Ministers of the Walton churches in this
ecumenical partnership.
Look
at our new website www.waltonpn.org.uk. We
have valued the support from other churches &
wish to acknowledge
kind donations received over the year.
Felixstowe Listening Service (FLS)
Now
well into our fourth year, we continue to provide short-term
listening as well as professional counselling for adults who are
experiencing life difficulties. With a team of 10 trained volunteer
listeners and counsellors, we are now running up to 16 individual
sessions a week on Wednesdays and Thursdays, both at the Library and
at Hope Trust and aim to see prospective clients for an initial
interview within two to three weeks. We are committed to offering
listening as a free service (although we do actively encourage
donations) and low-cost counselling related to people’s ability to
pay.
With the majority of the people who use the service being on
low incomes and our need to develop the service further, we are
experiencing financial pressures and are constantly looking at ways
of increasing our income without in any way compromising our
Christian ethos.
Our longer-term aim is to have our own premises,
possibly shared with another Christian group. We greatly value our
relationship with the local churches and welcome opportunities to
speak to church congregations and groups to explain how our service
works in partnership with local church ministry. For more
information on FLS, please contact Margaret Bale on 07896 326459 or
e-mail felixstowelisten@gmail.com.
Felixstowe
Town Pastors
Our statistics
for 2014 regarding the 1864 incidents handled give one picture of
what we’ve handled, but our experience and one to one engagement
have many hidden stories about loving, caring, bringing peace,
building bridges, serving, mopping up mess, sweeping up broken glass,
dried tears, laughing, hugs, high fives and answered prayer.
Last year we
said goodbye to Philippa Kichenside as Coordinator (but still a Town
Pastor), and this year we’ve welcomed Jan Bedford who joined us to
look after the day to day running of TP’s in Felixstowe. Our
greatest ongoing need – more volunteers! Especially base pray-ers,
and also female town pastors. If interested in finding out more,
please see Jan Bedford or Liz at the CTF AGM, or email
coordinator@felixstowetownpastors.org.uk
Every Blessing!
Peter Livey –
Director, FTP
