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Deanery Synod and Snowflake Report
Report from the Deanery Synod 18th September 2013.
The meeting started with a talk by Christopher Maxwell-Stewart, Chairman of Snowflake. Mr Maxwell-Stewart spoke about the winter shelter initiative among churches in Hastings & St. Leonard’s. The following is from the Snowflake website:-
The Vision: We provide supervised overnight accommodation to homeless people who would otherwise be sleeping rough in Hastings and St Leonard’s during the extreme winter months (December to February inclusive). Our Guests are referred to us via local organisations, primarily the Seaview Project and the St John Ambulance Homeless Service. We regret we are unable to accept people who just turn up unannounced.
What kind of shelter?: We provide a warm, secure and welcoming place for Guests to sleep safely between the hours of 7:00 p.m., when the doors open to 8:00 a.m., when Guests depart. Evening sit-down meals will be provided and a variety of activities will be on offer, including games, dvds, quizzes, singing and discussions with our volunteers. On weekdays and Saturdays breakfast will be provided at His Place in Kings Road and on Sundays late breakfast will be provided by Neighbours, Concordia Hall, Church Road, St Leonard’s. In our second winter we will open the Shelter on Monday 18th November 2013 to provide shelter for genuinely homeless persons through to the end of February 2014.
Whilst taking part in the Snowflake Night Shelter Project, each Community takes responsibility for one evening a week in a set pattern, which facilitates planning by the Community Coordinators. We are grateful to the following Communities who as of July 2013 have endorsed their aspirations to provide venues in the second year of the Snowflake Night Shelter. Discussions with other Communities continue with the objective of providing venues for Tuesday and Saturday nights so that continuous shelter can be provided for genuinely homeless persons throughout the winter of 2013-14.
Community: Salvation Army: Monday Nights
Community: St Mary Star of the Sea: Tuesday nights
Community: St Thomas of Canterbury: Wednesday Nights
Community: St Leonards Baptist Church: Thursday Nights
Community: St John the Evangelist: Friday Nights
Saturday Nights: Venue: liaison in progress throughout summer 2013 for this night <-- But see further down!
Community: St Matthews: Sunday Nights
Homeless persons will be referred to the Snowflake Night Shelter primarily by the Homeless Outreach Worker of the Seaview Project; other referral agencies will be the local Christian Communities, the St John Ambulance Homeless Service, Homeworks and Sussex Pathways.
Applicants will be interviewed in the Snowflake Project office within the Seaview Centre in Hatherley Road St Leonard’s on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays between 12:00 noon and 4:00 p.m., and on Wednesdays, between 12:00 noon and 2:00 p.m.
We regret we will not be able to accept applicants who turn up at any of the venues who have not been accredited via the Project Office.
Other news from the Deanery Synod
Appointment of Rural Dean is imminent!
Bishop’s visitation: the Bishop is arriving in this Deanery between 12th and 19th January. The Battle and Bexhill deanery are having their visitation in October.
The next confirmation service will be on 2nd January.
The Bishop will visit individual parishes; if there is no incumbent then the church wardens will take responsibility.
On the diocese website there is an invitation to pass on comments re., the next Bishop of Lewes. Next meeting is 7th November where members will discuss the purpose of the deanery synod.
Snowflake Night Shelter
At the last PCC meeting the members agreed by a majority vote for the Snowflake organisation to use the parish hall every Saturday night from 6:00 p.m., until 8.30 a.m., throughout the winter. The Snowflake organisation runs a night shelter for people who would otherwise spend the winter nights outside. It is a national organisation and the Hastings branch uses different parish halls as shelters for each night of the week. They have had difficulty finding a hall to use as a shelter on a Saturday night and with Blacklands joining the scheme, this means that now Snowflake can offer the homeless a shelter for seven nights each week. Snowflake are always on the lookout for volunteers to work evenings, nights or mornings at their shelters. Volunteer forms can be found at the back of the church. More information about the organisation can be found at www.snowflake-nightshelter.org.uk
Jean Wilson