Our 4 Priorities
At St Denys Church, we recognise that it's really important to engage in local and global issues. With so many needs, issues and opportunities, it can be pretty daunting, as well as really exciting, to know what to focus on. So we've identified four priorities we want to focus on over the next few years. These are:
- Local Empowerment
- Environmental Stewardship
- Global Engagement
- Making Disciples
Our 8 Partners & Collaborations
We believe there's a real strength in working with others who are already involved in these areas we can build a two-way relationships where both support & give, and also listen & learn. So we've committed to supporting the follow groups and individuals in different ways over the next three years.
Local Empowerment
Safe Families: This is an awesome charity which works with local councils to offer hope, belonging and support to children, families and care leavers. It works primarily, but not exclusively, with and through local churches, equipping volunteers to befriend those who need help. Find out more about their work and how you can be involved by clicking here.
Feed The Community: This grassroot community initiative focuses on making surplus food available to those who need it, and is run by volunteers. At the church each Friday morning from 11 till 12, food is distributed to anyone who needs it, and each week between twenty and forty households are provided with free food that they have chosen. You can find out more at the Feed The Community Facebook page
Sunday Lunch Project: This well-established local community venture provides a hot meal each Sunday for those who need it. Having started at St Denys 28 years ago, it returned 3 years ago and now feeds between 20 and 40 adults each Sunday. As well as food, it offers a safe and positive place for social contact and one of the regulars described it as seeing ‘family’ each week. For more information, check out their website here.
Environmental Stewardship
Climate Stewards: This is part of A Rocha (a Christian environmental charity) and it helps people live better on low carbon whilst also supporting our global neighbours adapt to the impacts of climate change. Engaging with Climate Stewards is a way of exploring how we can individually and collectively reduce our carbon footprint. Click here to find out how you could become involved.
Global Engagement
Christian Aid: This is one of the world's largest relief & development agencies, and aims to create a world where everyone can live a full life, free from poverty. It combines practical action, social justice campaigns and prayer, and is an inspiring organisation to be involved. Take a look here to find out more, and see how you could get involved.
Peacebuilding in Ethiopia: A number of church members have connections with or interest in Ethiopia, and we're interested in finding out how Christians within the country and beyond can have a positive impact and show God's love for the country. We're in the early stages of exploring a possible connection with an experiences CMS (Christian Mission Society) family who are working in Ethiopia with a focus on peace-building.
Making Disciples
Cat and Sam are well known to the St Denys church family, stretching back to their student days. Cat is now in training at Trinity College Bristol to be a priest. Sam uses his multiple gifting at the moment with the Salvation Army, working in one of their larger homelessness shelters. We delight in sharing their journey as they respond to God’s calling to ministry, to support them in friendship and prayer, and to learn and be challenged ourselves as God takes them out of their comfort zones into new places and opportunities to make disciples.
David and Christine: As CMS mission partners, David and Christine are preparing to go to Tanzania mid-2022 to the Diocese of Kondoa, north of Tanzania’s capital Dodoma, where the Christian faith is growing rapidly. There is a great need for theological training. David (our former curate) and Christine have been invited, and feel called, to be part of meeting that need. This means putting David’s theological training and their shared experience in ministry at the service of the people of Kondoa. You can find out more about their journey and how to support them by clicking here.