“Christ Church has a really nice and friendly atmosphere with great food.”
Community
Loving Service in the Local Community
One of our Mission Priorities at Christ Church is Loving Service in the Local Community. We are committed to offering loving and welcoming hospitality which reflects God’s love and welcome for all.
We welcome and serve people of all faiths and none.
At Christ Church, we seek to be a place where God’s justice, mercy and compassion can be found. We are inspired by following a God of justice and by the biblical imperative, “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.” (Isaiah 1:17)
We seek to engage with and serve our local community. We recently conducted a community survey in East Greenwich which highlighted some of the areas of need such as the lack of any CAB or legal advice centre.
We welcome working in partnership with other organisations and welcome people from the local community to work alongside us. We are in partnership with Law Works to host the East Greenwich Legal Advice Clinic and on 9th February and 2nd November 2018 we partnered with Feed the Hungry to host a food packing event which packed 1,000 meals for children in Africa:
The Greenwich Winter Night Shelter operates during the coldest months of every winter from November to March/April. It is hosted at Christ Church on Monday nights.
The shelter offers safe overnight accommodation for homeless people irrespective of race, creed or background. We host up to 15 guests who are referred to us by partner referral agencies.
During winter 2018/19, we had 94 guests referred of which 75 were offered places and 56 attended. We were open for 112 nights, and total bed nights occupied were 1,298 . By the close of the shelter 19 of our guests were successfully housed.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, we are unfortunately not able to offer overnight accommodation to guests. We have, however, launched a new project which provides hot meals to those in need in the local area.
For more information visit www.gwns.org.uk.
Christ Church, like each of the seven venues, has a volunteer team who welcome guests, cook, dine together, sleep overnight, provide breakfast and clear up.
Volunteers undergo training and we safely recruit by taking up references.
To find out more about volunteering please visit www.gwns.org.uk and apply through the GWNS online application process.
Christ Church hosts the East Greenwich Foodbank Welcome Centre on Thursday evenings from 6.30-8pm.
With the belief that no one in our community should have to face going hungry, last year, Greenwich Foodbank supplied 6,433 packages of three-day emergency food supplies for families, couples and people living on their own and referred in crisis.
Greenwich Foodbank is part of a nationwide network of foodbanks, supported by The Trussell Trust, working to combat poverty and hunger across the UK.
At Christ Church, we host a Welcome Centre and we are also a Collection Point for food. Donations are dropped of my members of the public as well as members of the church family and we also received collections from local schools and organisations.
The Greenwich Foodbank Welcome centre is currently led by Steve Wallace and we work in partnership with Emmanuel Church and others in the local community to staff the Welcome centre with volunteers. If you are interested in volunteering at the East Greenwich Foodbank Welcome Centre please contact Steve at stephendwallace@outlook.com.
“The foodbank was there when we really needed it, it was an absolute lifeline.”
Christ Church hosts the East Greenwich Legal Advice Clinic (EGLAC) which is a pro bono(free) legal advice and assistance service available to persons resident or based in South East London with a focus on East Greenwich in the Royal Borough of Greenwich.
EGLAC supports the Law Society’s pro bono Charter and strives to achieve best practice in legal advice and assistance for individuals and organisations who cannot afford access to justice.
EGLAC is a member of the LawWorks pro bono clinics network and Advice UK.
EGLAC is staffed entirely by volunteer lawyers and other individuals who help to administer our work and facilitate our clinic sessions. Our clinic operates fortnightly, usually on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month, from 8-9.45pm.
If you would like to access our services please email admin@eglac.org.uk or call 07806 733341. If we believe we may be able to assist you we will book you in for an appointment at the first available clinic session.
If you are interested in volunteering to help with our work please email us at admin@eglac.org.uk.
EGLAC is a member of the LawWorks pro bono clinics network and Advice UK.
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