Reaching out at Christmas

Jackie Macadam learns how churches and charities are engaging with communities this Christmas.

“WE firmly believe God us has called to do this outreach into the community to make a difference to people’s lives right now, through our personal visions and prayerful thoughts.”

Liz Stewart is Session Clerk at Dalmuir Barclay Church in Clydebank.

“For many years we had a Christmas Tree Festival and would have around 25 trees in the church. Around 16 of these would be in the sanctuary taking up a lot of space. The groups/organisations that sponsored those trees would send one or two people along to the Tree Festival opening night and it was always a great success.

“After Covid-19 I thought maybe we could try something a little different. Sponsoring less trees made more room in the sanctuary for participants. Instead of having gathered congregational singing, invite as many groups from the community and have a choir or a group doing a short sketch. The response was amazing as the different groups brought along family and friends and a great many of them nonchurchgoers. The warmth, love and feeling that the spirit was right there with us as we started our Advent season and the celebration of Jesus' birth coming a few weeks later.

“We had a small room set aside for a quiet time or reflection and candle lighting and a lot of the non-churchgoers went in and wrote on notelets names of people they wanted prayed for.

“Our area is an area of deprivation, single families, elderly, unemployed, addicts just outwith the Church of Scotland Priority Areas List and we have a community pantry, drop-in cafe, tots to teens clothing, indoor bowls and craft group on offer. They all started during Covid-19 or last winter as a warm hub. In April 2022 it was put to the Kirk Session that we start our own food pantry and community drop-in café by one of our elders, Fiona Hennebry. The Kirk Session agreed and we applied to the Presbytery for a share of the discretionary fund to purchase a freezer, which was successful. In May 2022 a small hall in the church was transformed into a pantry with shelves full of stock we had sourced from donations and purchased.

“We are helping over 150 families per week. Last winter we also gave out thermal mugs to families and people are able to bring them back to us each week to fill again after they have had their meal on a Friday. We gave out blankets to every family last year also. We give help for fuel and vouchers for food if someone has no money.

“Our outreach work might not suit everyone as there are no extra folk attending Sunday worship, but this is Mission Church in its fullest and we are fulfilling our mission statement: Serving God by creating a caring, inclusive community through Faith in Action.”

“ The response was amazing as the different groups brought along family and friends and a great many of them nonchurch goers.

The Church of Scotland’s Priority Areas team works with groups who help some of the most vulnerable people in Scotland. One of the groups, theGKexperience, brings a sense of community to some of the youngsters from Glasgow’s most deprived areas.

John Kewley, GK Chief Executive, explained: “We focus on providing joy, fun and taking the financial burden and stress out of Christmas for families we work with – Christmas time isn’t often one that brings much joy, due to the heavy commercial expectations, the food, presents and lights. Children are off school for two weeks and many will experience holiday hunger. There is so much taken for granted.

“We also put together ‘Santa packs’ for all the families we work with – these packs include items that are often overlooked and can be expensive, for example batteries, wrapping paper, pens, ribbons, scissors, tape. We include goodies like mince pies, hot chocolate, biscuits and juice. We have two days at the end of November where we prepare all the packs with the help of our volunteers. This is usually some operation as we work out how many children in each family there are and how many families in each of the five communities around Glasgow we work. We deliver the Santa packs as part of our home visits programme. The Santa packs cost around £20-25 each, totalling around £2000.”

He added: “The best element of the Christmas programme is the home visits. Families welcome our team into their home, even if we do take up a lot of space! We listen to how they are doing, finding out if there are any specific needs. We also have fun, there’s lots of laughter to the night too. It takes around aweek of evenings to see all the families, sometimes chatting late in to the night!

“We host a large Christmas party for all the young people, young leaders and volunteers that we have worked with during the year (around 120 people). We cook the dinner ourselves (volunteers and young leaders), providing a turkey dinner and chocolate cake. The party is a great way for young people from across Glasgow to come together and see each other, having made friends during the year on trips and residential experiences. We find quality entertainment acts. We create a Santa’s grotto at which the young people and young leaders receive a Christmas present. We try to provide a present to the average value of £35 – for many of the young people this will be their main Christmas present. We ask families and young people far in advance what they would like. The party element comes in at around £2000 and the presents come in around £2800.

“We provide every family with food vouchers to the value of £50 per child, which we hope helps them to be fed over the holiday season. The total cost of this element is around £5000, and even while all that is going on, our local groups continue to run during December as does our oneto-one support and mentoring.”

Bethany Trust is running its annual Caring Christmas Trees campaign. “We’re really hoping to sell 3,500 trees this year and raise a record breaking amount for our work ending homelessness across Scotland,” says Michael Saner, of the Marketing and Communications team at Bethany. “The trees are top quality Nordmann Firs, grown in Midlothian by Charlie, who runs the farm and has supported Bethany for a number of years.

“We are also partnering with Edinburgh: St Stephen’s Comely Bank to put on a charity Christmas Market on December 2, 8 and 9, at the church. There will be trees available for sale and local craft stalls.

“We have partnered with suppliers in the past to put on a Christmas dinner for all residents at the Welcome Centre; our Community Support and Development teams in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee run Christmas events and groups; and we work hard each week to enable more people to move into independent living and enjoy Christmas with family in their own home.”

But Christmas outreach doesn’t just happen here. Tearfund have partners all over the world who will be bringing Christmas to their communities, wherever they are.

“The Gregorian calendar celebrates Christmas on December 25, while Ethiopian Christmas, known as Genna, falls on January 7,” says Jen Clark, Media and Communications manager for Tearfund, Scotland.

“Times have been particularly difficult this year, but in the midst of the worst droughts East Africa has seen in forty years, Tearfund has been working through the local church to reach vulnerable families through emergency relief and long-term support.”

Simba Nyamarezi, Tearfund’s Country Director in Ethiopia, explained: “Climate change and rising food costs are causing severe food shortages, and families have been going without, all year round.

“Tearfund will continue to support the local church in Ethiopia throughout the Christmas period and beyond, to survive in these desperate times. We want people to go into a new year with hope for the future, that despite the immense challenges this year has brought; not only can their basic needs be met, but that they can flourish.”

Lorna McDonald, interim Head of Tearfund Scotland, added, ‘We know times are tough for many in Scotland this Christmas, so we really recognise and want to say thank you to those who graciously give to support our work - often sacrificially - so that families around the world do not have to go hungry.”