0-Love Southampton 2022-2023

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9. Our Ongoing Wider Work A: The death of Queen Elizabeth: Following the passing of Queen Elizabeth II on 8th September 2022 we decided that our role would be to promote key church voices, such as the Church of England and the Bishop of Southampton (Debbie Sellin) so that those following our social media feeds knew how they could pay their respects. We also wanted to record what local churches in Southampton were doing to mark the occasion. A number of churches appeared to move very quickly to set up spaces of reflection across the City, with spaces opening at Highfield Church, Saint Mary’s Church, North Stoneham and Bassett venues, and St Denys’ church. Reverend Sera Rumble opened St Denys Church and said: ‘We wanted to create a space for anyone and everyone because there’s that point where I think social media can be a place to respond but it can still be quite isolating; We thought that we can create a space respectful of lots of different people’s feelings, opinions, but also a space where we can press pause.” Love Southampton also used its online presence and network of churches to promote: • A citywide remembrance service at Saint Mary’s Church on Sunday 18th September at 3pm • A citywide bell ringing event at noon on the 9th September • Various prayer and thoughtful points from the Church of England’s social media platforms B: Warm Spaces With winter fast approaching, talk about the best way to respond to the growing problems that many people were having with heating their homes due to rising fuel bills became more obvious. Around September, Sophie-Rose Fanner from Saint Mary’s Church started to push the conversation forward about this in an effort to understand whether churches around Southampton were able and willing to open ‘warm spaces’. Love Southampton were very willing to proactively support this. We surveyed our citywide church network to find out which warm spaces were already up and running or planned, and what resources churches might need to help them do this. We also encouraged churches to sign up to the local and national ‘warm spaces’ websites so that this community support could be mapped. The full extent of this initiative is not yet known and whilst it seems that many churches have opened up new warm spaces, others have expanded existing clubs and groups with longer hours and additional volunteers to help people through this challenging winter. Page 36
C: Church community output mapping As Love Southampton began to look to the future post-Covid in the spring of 2022, Matt made a conscious effort to talk to key figures from within Southampton’s church community that were active in their local communities, often running community projects such as debt support, foodbanks, and coffee mornings to address social isolation. From these conversations it became clear that positive and life-changing work was being done in Southampton, but not all organisations and church-based initiatives were aware of each other, and some work to raise awareness would be beneficial. A project to collect information about the community work undertaken by churches is underway. As churches complete our survey and more data is collected, a strong picture of community support is emerging in the form of food banks, support for refugees, services for the elderly and students, and debt centres all across the city. We continue to encourage churches to complete the survey in order to gain the fullest possible understanding of all the community work that is being undertaken. We want to use this information to share with our network and with those in need. We want to make the information accessible to those who are seeking help so that people can identify relevant services that are in their neighbourhood. It would be great if churches were able to update their information with ease. We also want to promote the variety and breadth of work of the churches in Southampton to the wider world. D: Chaplain network In our efforts to be actively involved in the everyday work of many people within Southampton, demonstrating that we can work ‘Through the church, for the City’, we put effort into supporting the Southampton ‘Chaplain network’. Set up before the pandemic, the network continues to thrive today and, was a signifivant source of support to people during the lockdowns. Guided by Nicky Porter from the leadership at City Life Church, the network attempts to put work-based chaplains into any key business or place of employment across Southampton. Chaplains are already in place at local universities, the hospital, and other local businesses and key civic centre buildings. The network meets several times a year to receive support, prayer, and feedback. Anyone wishing to find out about more is encouraged to email; nicky@citylife.org.uk Page 37
Page 1 and 2: Love Southampton Annual Report 2022
Page 3 and 4: Contents Page 1. Foreword 4 2. Exec
Page 5 and 6: 2. Executive Summary As the UK emer
Page 7 and 8: Statement by Councillor Satvir Kaur
Page 9 and 10: Figure 1: This illustration breaks
Page 11 and 12: B: Social media We use social media
Page 13 and 14: 5. Reintroducing ourselves to wider
Page 15 and 16: Story highlight 1: NHS Cost of Livi
Page 17 and 18: Figure 2: This illustration shows h
Page 19 and 20: 7. Networks In the autumn of 2020 L
Page 21 and 22: signposting through the local GP pr
Page 23 and 24: Story highlight 3: Southampton Cost
Page 25 and 26: Page 25
Page 27 and 28: 7.III Students The various student
Page 29 and 30: C: Hong Kong City Life Church, with
Page 31 and 32: Story highlight 4: Friendship Festi
Page 33 and 34: 8b. Faith Covenant (A snapshot of s
Page 35: Story highlight 5: Faith Covenant r
Page 39: Contact details: www.lovesouthampto

0-Love Southampton 2022-2023

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