A warm welcome

Jackie Macadam reports on the rise of heat banks within churches as communities grapple with rising energy costs.

WHEN I was a young reporter, back in the early 1980s, I was sent on a mission to a local shopping centre to try to find pensioners who would spend the day there to keep warm without spending money at home.

I got a couple of bites, but nothing that would suggest it was a huge issue.

Nowadays, I fear, if I repeated the exercise, I might get a very different response.

There is absolutely no doubt that things are getting tighter and tighter.

With huge increases in energy costs this winter, churches across Scotland have worked together to develop ‘warm spaces’ or ‘heat banks’ where anyone can come in and use the opportunity to just stay warm. But in these straitened times, even the churches are having to ‘get creative’ in the way they help out.

Forfar: St Margaret’s is just one of the churches taking part this winter.

Minister, the Rev Maggie Hunt says it’s something that is needed in the community.

“We were aware of the need,” she said. “And it’s a real opportunity to make a difference to people around us.

“We are working alongside other churches in Forfar so that people have somewhere to go every day if they need to keep warm.

“Lowson Memorial Church in Forfar is going to be open each afternoon, St John’s Episcopal Church is going to take part as is East and Old Church in the town. It’s a real combined effort and we’re hoping that between us, we’ll give the people of the town somewhere they can access warmth, hot food and companionship.”

Like other churches, the warm space initiative is being seen as a chance to help their parish in more than one way. Warm spaces are not the only reasons for going along.

Maggie explains: “Whereas most times people come in to the church it’ll be for a specific event – aclub or a group that meets for a specific reason, the warm spaces time will be very informal, without any pre-organised activities, so people can come along and not have to be worried about having to ‘join in’. Of course activities, like jigsaws, laptops, games etc will be there if people want to use them, but if someone just wants to come along, stay warm and read a book, no one will mind.

“ With huge increases in energy costs this winter, churches across Scotland have worked together to develop ‘warm spaces’ or ‘heat banks’ where anyone can come in and use the opportunity to just stay warm.

“On Friday afternoons the warm space will also incorporate our ‘Teen Café’ which we run so that secondary school pupils can come along, eat lunch and just hang with friends in the warm and dry.”

She sighs and adds: “I wish we didn’t NEED these warm spaces, but we are happy to provide what we can.”

The Rev Adam Dillon is minister at Glasgow: Sherbrooke Mosspark.

Their project materialised as a direct result of their attempts to form a ‘cluster’ in the new presbytery planning process.

“We agreed that no matter what happened in the planning process, we would commit to running what we call our ‘Warm Welcome Project,” he said. “Ultimately, one of our congregations, Pollokshields, decided that working together for Presbytery Planning wasn’t for them, but they were still willing to collaborate for the Warm Welcome Project. That was a great testament to working together despite differences.

“The project is being driven by Sherbrooke Mosspark and Ibrox Parish Church, with Pollokshields, the Clyde Community Centre and the Glasgow Gurdwarra, the local Sikh community. We aim to provide a warm space each day Monday to Friday.

“This is a genuine community project that will reach out to those who are in real need. We are also running a Ukrainian afternoon once a fortnight for the very same reason, reaching out to a specific need and welcoming our new neighbours from Ukraine.

“It is easy to become complacent or distracted by other current events. However, the cost of living crisis is real. For some people this could be a life and death issue. Covid taught us what can be done to genuinely protect the most vulnerable, and the government played a very full part in that, but we should not lose sight of the fact that the need for heat banks is a damning indictment of our current political and economic climate,” he says.

“Orkney’s natural beauty is complemented by a mild climate but the winds in the winter can make us all rather chilly,” says the Rev Andy Braunston, United Reformed Church’s digital minister for worship, who lives in Harray, Orkney.

“There’s no mains gas in Orkney so homes are heated by oil or electricity and the rising price of both has meant that there is real fuel poverty here. This is made worse by the fact that OFGEM allows the power companies to charge a higher daily standing charge here than anywhere else in the UK – despite the fact that a lot of energy is generated here by those winds.”

The churches on the islands realised that there was a very real need for help in their communities, and have rallied round to try to ease the burden.

“The churches decided to try and help – the Kirk on the connected isle of South Ronaldsay was first off the mark, opening its doors every weekday from October 1, to offer a warm space for socialising and study.

“ We’re simply offering a space for people to be warm, make friends, get on with craft or study, have brew and mean they haven’t got to heat their homes all through the day.

“The Kirkwall Council of Churches decided to offer a similar space two days a week – recognising that the Kirkwall Library and Salvation Army are offering similar things too. We’re simply offering a space for people to be warm, make friends, get on with craft or study, have a brew and mean they haven’t got to heat their homes all through the day. It’s an important saving. Volunteers offer a warm welcome, a minister is on hand if folk want to chat but generally we’re simply making ourselves available so folk can stay warm.”

He shakes his head. “It’s shocking that in a wealthy nation like the UK people are struggling to heat their homes and even more shocking that in an area where so much of Scotland’s electricity is generated that our prices are so high. The Council and our MP and MSP have explained this frequently to OFGEM (the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets) but they seem not to want to listen.”

Ellon Parish Church is taking a slightly different approach, as mission development worker Nicola Bruce explains: “We haven’t created a designated heat bank or warm space as such.

“However, we are encouraging use of our current community provisions for the same purpose and in the meantime are discussing if there is more we can do.

“We encounter many households who are panicking about their capacity to pay for fuel or who are currently experiencing fuel poverty. There is increased anxiety over how households will manage through the winter and those who are coping currently are trying to stretch their income in our Community Larder and Café now in preparation for winter fuel. We also have had some enquiries and are considering how we can support those who now have to work from home and, among other concerns that that raises, are worried about the increase in their energy costs over the winter so we are looking at bookable communal workspaces. The need for food banks is hard enough but for warm spaces, where folks are freezing in their homes, choosing between food and heat... it’s all very concerning. It affects right across society; homes and businesses; rich and poor; charities and public spaces. It raises a great deal of anxiety across the board!”

At Ayr: St Columba, Irene Bartholomew, the church administrator says: “We have set aside a room within our church to create a safe, warm space three days a week.

“We are doing this not only with an eye on the crisis facing many due to the crippling cost of gas and electricity, but also to address loneliness and isolation.

“We opened in October and are open until March, or whenever there is no longer a demand. The Warm Space will run at St Columba on Tuesday/Wednesday and Friday.”

Like most other churches they have an already established social programme at the church and are finding ways to combine the warm space with them.

She added: “We have a group of volunteers who will keep the coffee pot topped up and be a welcoming face to everyone who drops in and should there be a need, we also plan to source blankets, warm scarves and hats.”

The plan will also include help from Ayr St Andrew’s and Ayr Auld Kirk and both churches are supporting and promoting this venture.

The national charity Poverty Alliance is appreciative of the support of churches but feels that the governmental failings in Westminster are to blame for the situation.

Policy and Parliamentary Officer, Ashley McLean, explained: “Poverty Alliance is grateful for the compassionate action by churches to provide food and warmth for those in need. However they highlight the need to recognise that it is the failures of the UK Government which are responsible for the injustice that sees people having to turn to warm banks due to inadequate incomes from work and social security, and rising living costs.”