Fellowship in Frinton and Walton

Adapting to the new 'normal', Anna Chaplaincy network member Sally Bates sends news from her part of the the Essex coast, Frinton and Walton, near Clacton.

---

We (normally) have an outreach event to seniors every Wednesday morning called 'Welcome Break', where up to 80 guests come in for activities, quizzes, speakers, music, etc. They are seated on ten tables with two 'table hosts' on each table, whose role is to look after them, pray for them, send them birthday cards, and – during this time – phone them weekly to keep in touch. In order to support the team (about 40 people), every week I send an email update and have included several of the ideas you've sent, including the 'Just Be' poem, some of the prayers, [super-centenarian] Bob Weighton's birthday, the Hope tree and the advice on phoning from 'Time to Talk' and on mental health and well-being.

I also try to include a 'good news' story from the press too, e.g:

• 94-year-old recovered from virus

• 106-year-old British woman who survived the virus

• a widower who was given a cushion with a photo of his wife

• a lovely story from Queens Hospital, Romford, with a positive focus on survival

and also a resource of some kind, e.g:

• the Daily Hope hotline – 0800 804 8044

• suggestions for marking the 75th anniversary of VE day

• keep-fit activities for seniors: 10-minute home workout for seniors. Or if that’s too energetic, here’s a chair-based one, a 10-minute home chair workout for seniors

• Beatitudes for a global pandemic

The idea is then that the team pass any relevant information on to 'their' guests when they phone them each week.

Our church has been delivering Sunday services and 'thoughts for the day' online since the lockdown began (frintonfree.com/youtube).

Another lovely initiative has been carried out by our sister church Coastlands in Walton (part of our new local 'seniors network') and coordinated by Denis Bradshaw. There are over 20 care homes in this area. Denis writes:

Just wanted to let you know of a little initiative that we undertook recently re: care homes and care agencies in Walton & Frinton. Coastlands started a 24/7 church prayer team 3 weeks ago. As part of that, all care homes and specific health and care workers identified are prayed for each day. On the back of that, we have sent cards to all care homes and care agencies – we thanked the managers and staff for their hard work in caring and assured them that we were praying for help and protection. We have so far received a very positive response from one care agency – they were appreciative that we recognised their work and had not forgotten them.