Waddington Street Church Projects

“Making a difference in today’s world”

Since 2010 the church meeting has voted annually to financially support Christian Aid and at least one charity or community project each year in addition to any other commitments. The total raised now exceeds £45,000.

The activities undertaken to raise the money have brought real benefits to the members who have enjoyed great fellowship, been entertained at concerts, enjoyed good food at coffee mornings, church lunches, buffets and afternoon teas. They have also interacted with the organisations that have been supported and learnt much. The projects are run alternatively, one year supporting a local Durham charity and the next year an overseas charity. In addition, the church lettings policy reflects our concern to make a difference in our local community. We charge modestly, prefer small local charities, and have a number who from time to time need a rent holiday. As we appreciate the real significance and value of their work to their clients we happily continue to support them.

The church premises are being used by folks from the local community with a wide range of interests, environmental, addiction recovery, interfaith, mental health, dance and music, pre and post-natal care, foreign student get to know Durham/England evenings. The Durham Food bank operates from these premises three days a week.

In 2013/14 we refurbished our premises to make them more usable, comfortable and accessible to folks with limited mobility. We replaced all the heating, made the sanctuary a more flexible space and installed Wi-Fi freely available to all users of the premises. These changes and adaptations were considered necessary to enable the congregation to better serve the community and this has proven to be the case with many more charities and voluntary groups using the premises than previously.

The projects supported financially include: – Christian Aid; The Christian Blind Mission; the Ebola Crisis in Sierra Leone; Triple E, a children’s centre in Manila; Global Care, a Ugandan schools project; and one of our sister churches, The Presbyterian Church in Mozambique.

Nearer to Durham we have supported charities dealing with: – youth homelessness; addiction recovery; prisoners families; folk with mental health issues.

In 2018 we are currently raising money for the Waddington St Centre ( a mental health charity) and are planning in 2019 to support the Air Ambulance Service and Hope for Justice, a charity tackling modern slavery in Britain.

 

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