As part of our commitment to EDI within the Chester and Stoke-on-Trent District, we will be starting a series of standalone sessions on Zoom for all who are passionate about issues of equality, diversity and inclusion.

​On 1 October 2020 at 2:00pm, we will meet to begin to explore issues of race. The sessions will include testimony from invited guests and a time of reflecting and sharing together in smaller groups. If you would like to join the session please e-mail Rob in the District Office (chester.stoke (@) btconnect.com) for the Zoom code. 

It is with great joy that can announce that on Sunday 4th October at 10 am we will be holding our first service in church since March. There will also be a mid week early evening service on Wednesday 7th October at 4 pm. These will not be the same as the services that we are used to:

• Numbers will be limited
• We will have to social distance
• We will not be able to sing
• We will need to wear face masks (we will have some available if you do not have your own)
• We will not be able to provide lifts
• We will not be able to have refreshments after the service

However, we will be able to worship God in a familiar setting. If you would like to attend a service you can book place by filling in the form HERE. If we are oversubscribed then those that miss out will be first on the list for the next service.

We can assure you that we are following all guidelines around safety, and church will be a safe place. If you are not ready to return to the church building, and we realise that many of you will not be, the YouTube service will still be broadcast each week, and will be available on line or over the phone. The service sheet for those who are unable to access the online service will also continue to be produced each week.

The Leadership Team
​Frodsham Methodist Church

As you will realise, we will sadly not be able to celebrate harvest in the usual way this year. However, it didn’t seem right not to give thanks to God in some way, and not to recognise the needs of others. We are suggesting that you may like to respond in two ways:

1. Instead of the usual cans and packets we will have a cash collection for CATH (Chester Aid to the Homeless) and the Runcorn Foodbank, the two charities who usually receive our gifts in kind. Cheques made out to Frodsham Methodist Church can be sent to the church treasurer, John Holmes, by 12th October and the money will be divided between the two charities.
2. As we will not be decorating the church, you may like instead to pick flowers from your garden or buy a bunch to give to a friend or neighbour or someone who just needs cheering up.

Frodsham Methodist Church is a thriving North Cheshire market town church which has been running a lively families and children’s work for the last 16 years including our 09.30live! family friendly service, recent schools outreach, a small teenagers group regularly visiting Greenbelt and other events. The church has excellent ecumenical links in the town. Historically the town began as a small market town but with excellent links to Chester, Runcorn, Liverpool and Manchester it now has a widely diverse population of commuters and service industries. The town shares schools and services with the surrounding villages of Norley, Helsby and Kingsley, which also have smaller but thriving Methodist congregations.

The Church, which is part of the North Cheshire Methodist Circuit, is now looking for a committed Christian with a clear calling to work to encourage young people and under 30s (from within and currently outside the church) to develop a deep and long lasting faith in God, embedded and working within the community. The appointed candidate will work with the existing youth and young adults to assist them in developing their faith into adulthood, but also work with the wider community outside of the church. Covid-19 has focused our attention on the exciting possibilities that are available to us to fulfil our Vision.

We wish to recruit someone who will help us explore, determine and then implement the new ways of ‘doing/being church’ in a post pandemic scenario, both in the physical and in the digital world.

You are a good communicator, able to work independently at times to suit the range of activities and to encourage and motivate others to get involved.

Hours of work: 37.5 hours per week including Sundays. Salary £21,060 per annum + agreed expenses + training opportunities.

For an application pack please contact: Rev'd. Andrew Emison on andrew@emison.net
Applications enclosing a full CV by Friday 16th October 2020 to: Rev'd. Andrew Emison, 41 Fairways, FRODSHAM, WA6 7RU
First round of interviews: week commencing 26th October 2020

We would love you to join and be part of the charity challenge this September. The aim is to travel in a refugee’s shoes covering as many miles as possible to reflect on their journey.

The challenge
You can choose how to clock up the miles – run, walk, cycle, toddle, skateboard or do laps of your garden like Captain Tom!   

Let us know at the end of each week how many miles you have done & we will add this to the team total. Ask your family and friends to sponsor you or donate directly via the JustGiving page.
​
Why?
All funds raised will go to Trinity Safe Space, who provide emergency support and help to asylum seekers, who have fled from war-torn countries, like Syria. The charity operates from, and is supported by, our friends at Halton Trinity Methodist Church and Widnes Trinity Methodist Church.

​Sponsorship Form

The Methodist Conference has declared 2020/2021 a year of prayer to support Evangelism and Growth. Districts, circuits, churches and individuals are invited to pray for the Methodist Church as we deepen our commitment to be a growing, evangelistic, inclusive, justice-seeking Church of gospel people.

​Join others across the Methodist Church to pray together online every Tuesday (starting 1st September) from 12.45 to 1.00pm. 

You may be aware that we identified in our 2015 Vision and Mission Strategy document the need for us to look to appoint a part-time youth worker. When Andrea left her post as part-time church children and families worker we have reviewed the need for the two posts and merged them into one role – a full time Under 30’s worker.

Since that time we have been securing the money to pay for the post and getting the necessary approvals in place from Circuit and District. As you know, in ‘normal’ times, we have an exciting 0930live! service, a youth group within our church, and an active pre-school programme. We also have a small group of people in their 20’s. We want to support and build on this existing work. This project and post was approved and funding secured prior to the UK ‘lock down’ following the declaration of the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Due to the lock down, recruitment was not commenced. This period, along with the introduction of a live online Sunday 10am service via YouTube, has provided the leadership team opportunity to consider the scope of the Vision and Job Description, to enable us to still meet the Vision and Aims of this project, but to reflect the ‘new normal’ and the possible new and additional opportunities. There will be very few churches who are in a position to immediately recruit an individual to be at the forefront of helping to explore and determine what this new normal will be, and the application of this within a local church setting. We now wish to recruit someone who will help us explore, determine and then implement the new ways of ‘doing/being church’ in a post pandemic scenario, both in the physical church building, but also in the virtual world. We have secured funding for a three year contract, made up of money from our own church funds, North Cheshire Circuit and the Methodist District funding. We are very grateful for this generosity.

​The job advert will be launched in the second week of September 2020 using the following text. If you can share this advert with anyone who may be interested in this post, or with those who may know people who may be interested, then we would really appreciate this. If you have any queries with this, then please let one of the leadership team know.

​Under 30’s Worker Vacancy
​
Frodsham Methodist Church is a thriving North Cheshire market town church which has been running a lively families and children’s work for the last 16 years including our 09.30live! family friendly service, recent schools outreach, a small teenagers group regularly visiting Greenbelt and other events. The church has excellent ecumenical links in the town. Historically the town began as a small market town but with excellent links to Chester, Runcorn, Liverpool and Manchester it now has a widely diverse population of commuters and service industries. The town shares schools and services with the surrounding villages of Norley, Helsby and Kingsley, which also have smaller but thriving Methodist congregations.

The Church, which is part of the North Cheshire Methodist Circuit, is now looking for a committed Christian with a clear calling to work to encourage young people and under 30s (from within and currently outside the church) to develop a deep and long lasting faith in God, embedded and working within the community. The appointed candidate will work with the existing youth and young adults to assist them in developing their faith into adulthood, but also work with the wider community outside of the church. Covid-19 has focused our attention on the exciting possibilities that are available to us to fulfil our Vision.

We wish to recruit someone who will help us explore, determine and then implement the new ways of ‘doing/being church’ in a post pandemic scenario, both in the physical and in the digital world.

You are a good communicator, able to work independently at times to suit the range of activities and to encourage and motivate others to get involved.

Hours of work: 37.5 hours per week including Sundays. Salary £21,060 per annum + agreed expenses + training opportunities.

For an application pack please contact: Rev'd. Andrew Emison on andrew@emison.net
Applications enclosing a full CV by Friday 16th October 2020 to: Rev'd. Andrew Emison, 41 Fairways, FRODSHAM, WA6 7RU
First round of interviews: week commencing 26th October 2020

A reminder that there is a reflection provided by Rev'd. Jo Brown, one of the ministers in our Circuit, each week on the 'dial-a-reflection' telephone service. Please telephone +44 01829 708 930 (local rate applies) to hear this. Please feel free to pass the details on to anyone you think would like to hear this.

​Trinity Safe Spaces (TSSs) drop-ins normally provide support and services, through external agencies such the British Red Cross, Refugee Women Connect, that are key to integrating asylum seekers, refugees and vulnerable migrants, into the local authority area, services, organisations and community of Halton.

Due to the Covid 19 lockdown, the Trinity Safe Space buildings had to be closed in March after 3 x weekly sessions attended by an average of 45 people, causing the leaders’ teams to make plans together with A Better Tomorrow, Halton, to support the asylum seekers we had made contact with, as well as any new arrivals we came across. The support has changed from people coming to a drop-in where they met with others, ate a cooked lunch, accessed food parcels, toiletries, sanitary products, clothes and essential household items and received practical help with form filling, legal aid through partner organisations etc, to support from A Better Tomorrow, Halton with the following activities during lockdown:-

• supporting the emotional/physical health of the asylum seekers through regular phone calls and WhatsApp messages
• keeping them involved by linking together with others
• providing them with essential supplies of food (either via providing E vouchers for the foodbank or buying and delivering to them), toiletries, clothes, bedding, cleaning products and some essential household items
• welcoming new arrivals ensuring they are plugged into local support
• ensuring families access free school meals vouchers for their children through phone calls and detailed explanations
• giving detailed explanations to people about Covid 19 and the rules and regulations surrounding this in order to keep people safe

Many of these activities have been done in partnership with others eg the foodbanks, the TSSs’ leaders’ teams and the schools.

We formed the virtual TSS Leaders’ Group, which meets weekly by video call, to plan what to do - this  became a weekly report-in session, to hear what was being provided by A Better Tomorrow, Halton, partly funded from an Our Halton grant, a grant from the Police Crime Commissioner and many generous donations from the public, to support A Better Tomorrow, Halton practically and emotionally, to utilise our collective contacts and partnerships to help with issues arising and to discuss the rest of the year, when lockdown eases.

We have also set up Survival English lessons on-line using a combination of Messenger and WhatsApp for practice exercises, You Tube videos, and video calls to practise speaking and listening. Currently 29 students are taking part in this, supported by 2 tutors and 6 volunteers with a few new students being assessed. There are two levels: beginner and entry. Students and their helpers are enjoying this and are doing well.

Outcomes already achieved for asylum seekers

• Asylum seekers’ needs met – eg E vouchers for foodbank, phone top ups
• Increased knowledge of local area/services – eg giving directions to foodbank, bus routes, timetables
• Improved timely access to relevant services – ABTH helping with Universal Credit application
• Improved understanding and knowledge of health risks from Covid 19 eg explanations of leaflets
• Improved written and spoken English skills
• Inclusion of incomers in local communities eg one asylum seeker volunteering in deliveries
• Reduced feelings of social isolation eg people’s overwhelming gratitude for phone calls, messages, deliveries
• Asylum seekers are better able to articulate how they are feeling eg opening up in phone calls
• Free school meals accessed for holidays too, ensuring children are well fed eg supporting people to get vouchers (a very difficult process with little English and not understanding the concept)
• Access to Benefits enabled eg Universal Credit for those being given leave to remain
• Missing Aspen cards and money from Serco chased up and received
• Housing needs sorted with Housing Solutions
• Better diet eg balanced food in parcels
• Better mental/physical health expressed by people in phone calls
• Increased confidence and self-esteem evidenced by people opening up more freely in phone calls
• Safer communities and individuals – most people adhering to Covid 19 guidelines
• Advice from British Red Cross and Refugee Women Connect sought and provided eg translations and section 4 information

​Through a Better Tomorrow, Halton we have:

• ensured that all the asylum seekers we knew had mobile phones so they could be contacted and supported in this way
• ensured that existing and new asylum seekers were given sufficient food and other essentials eg school uniform – there are still examples of missing Aspen cards which have been chased up
• contacted new asylum seekers with the help of partners and ensured they were given food, clothes and household items and are now in the regular phone contact process
• helped families access the free school meals vouchers by explaining, in different languages, the difficult process and enabling them to physically get them from schools, including for the holiday period
• contacted partners eg British Red Cross/Refugee Women Connect to deal with specific issues for some
• kept asylum seekers safe and well through the pandemic by reiterating the rules and regulations and ensuring they understood what they meant
• found new ways of checking on their health and wellbeing rather than face to face
• taught some of our contacts Survival English on-line​​

​We still need cash donations to keep this vital work going for the foreseeable future. There are two ways you can donate, through our Just Giving link, or you can make a one off donation/set up a regular donation into our bank account by emailing us on TSSHalton@gmail.com so we can give you the account details securely.

Lessons learned are that our team is very flexible, can adapt to new ways of working very quickly, that people worked to their strengths in what could have been a crisis by applying for extra funding, monitoring what is happening, supporting each other extremely well, that, despite being from different faiths/denominations we all wanted the best for the client group and worked hard to achieve this and that the asylum seekers are much happier and well than they would have been had we not have done this. Also, by partnership working, we have provided a huge amount of support from quite small amounts of funding and donations, which has made a very big difference to people’s lives. A very big thank you to everyone who has worked, volunteered and donated money or goods over this difficult period – you have had such a positive impact on many people.
​
We also have volunteering opportunities if you are able and willing to help: for example helping deliver food and other essentials to properties across Halton, especially if you have your own vehicle; helping to sort and bag donations; helping as an on-line support for the Survival English; contacting people by WhatsApp  or phone to check on their wellbeing. You will need to go through a safer recruitment process to ensure we keep you and our vulnerable people safe. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer with us, please use the email address above and one of our team will reply to you.

​Thank you.

Halton Trinity Methodist Church, Main Street, Halton Village, Runcorn, WA7 2AT
Trinity Methodist/United Reform Church, Peel House Lane, Widnes WA8 6TJ
www.facebook.com/trinitysafespace
​