As winter continues to bite, hundreds of churches across the country are opening their doors each week to offer a warm space to people struggling to keep their heating on.
There are 485 Church of England churches offering warm spaces this winter, many of them with food and activities to help build community.
They are opening their doors as part of the Warm Welcome Spaces campaign, a national network of over 5,000 warm spaces, from churches to community halls, leisure centres, cinemas and libraries.
Lay ministers, Paul and Gemma Tombling, coordinate three warm spaces in the Wythenshawe area of the Diocese of Manchester.
Their warm space at St Luke’s Church is hosted in collaboration with the Bread and Butter Thing charity and offers advice sessions. St Richard’s Church runs a food bank, while guests can find a hot meal at St Andrew’s Methodist Church working in partnership with William Temple Church.
“I have lived in poverty so I know and understand what people are going through, I grew up in a very low income family,” Gemma said.
“During the Covid pandemic, the churches stepped up to do as much as they could to support their communities and most of this work has grown from this time.”
In Strood, Kent, a warm space opened up at St Nicholas Church four years ago as a way of supporting people struggling with isolation and the cost of living in the wake of the Covid pandemic.
It has continued to open its doors each winter, running a weekly session from December to March offering wifi, hot drinks and free food. In the run-up to Christmas, the church delivered 100 hampers to local families in need.
Rev Sue Vallente-Kerr, vicar of St Nicholas Church, said, “We’re just looking for ways to support people and we’re now considering running the space beyond March.”
It is not only parish churches that are welcoming people in from the cold. In Somerset, Wells Cathedral is running its ‘warm rail’ for the third year in a row, offering people in need free donated winter coats, warm clothing and accessories. At the cathedral’s café, people can find warmth and a free cup of tea or coffee.
St Thomas’s Church in Ensbury Park, Bournemouth, started a warm space in the winter of 2022. It proved so popular that the church decided to run it all year round. It attracts around 60 people over two sessions a week where they can enjoy simple meals and refreshments, and join in activities like indoor curling, board games and crafts. One Saturday a month, the church runs a breakfast club and clothes swap with free donated clothes.
The Rev Canon Simon Evans, vicar of St Thomas’s, said, “We were exploring how we could reach out into the community and we saw this need. It is really a way of expressing what our Christian faith is – the love and the care of Jesus.
“The cold is less of an issue for many of the people who attend – they are more concerned about isolation and the need for company and conversation. We also have some limited emergency funding to buy food parcels for people who are in need.”
The Bishop of Winchester and chair of the ChurchWorks Commission, Philip Mounstephen, said the sense of community on offer was an important part of the warm spaces.
“So many churches are offering warm spaces for people struggling to pay their energy bills this winter – not only with the Warm Welcome campaign but through other networks and as part of the work of our parish churches,” he said.
“I give thanks for all that is being done by our congregations and parishes, who are motivated by their Christian faith and Jesus’s command to love your neighbour.
“The warm welcome isn’t just about energy bills. Everyone of us has our God given value and dignity. These spaces provide friendship, kindness and a sense of community, so crucial to well being.”
