At Holy Trinity church in Hereford, a new Repair Café is taking church to the community and bringing new life into the building.
As responsible Christian consumers do we need to add a new ‘R’ for ‘Repair’ to our mantra – Reduce, Re-use, Recycle? With volunteers showing up to fix most household objects, from toys to textiles, bicycles to bric-a-brac, Repair Cafés are springing up all over the diocese, with a total of nine now in Shropshire and another seven in Herefordshire. The latter include Holy Trinity church on Whitecross Road in Hereford which pops up on the last Saturday of every month except December. Other Herefordshire Cafés are in Marden, Leominster, Ledbury, Llangrove, Golden Valley and Dinedor. Shropshire’s are in Bishop’s Castle, Bridgnorth, Church Stretton, Ellesmere, Ludlow, Oswestry & Borders, Pontesbury, Telford and Shrewsbury. Venues range from churches to scout hut to community halls.
We spoke with some of the team from Holy Trinity in Hereford, who launched their Repair Café last September. John Chapman and Jean Thomson, pictured, are members of the church’s Eco Church group, which came out of a Faith in Action initiative for the West Hereford Benefice. It was Jean who heard about other local Repair Cafés last May and, she says, “Got a gleam in my eye.” With support from an experienced organiser from Worcester, Rod Howell, the Hereford Repair Café took off last Autumn and is now the largest in the county, with 50 items brought in for repair during February’s session, and 15 volunteer repairers on hand. With cakes and a cuppa on offer as well, and all for the price of a donation, it is bringing in members of the community who have never been inside Holy Trinity before.
Says John, “We feel it’s very important for the church to be a part of the community, especially a city church, where many people may not know their neighbours.” Jean adds, “Some people are reluctant to step over the threshold of a church, for one reason or another. Our Repair Café seems to influence people’s attitude to the building for the better, even if in a small way. We don’t evangelise so to speak, but we do see people looking at our noticeboards, which suggests they may be searching for a deeper connection.” John continues, “Our Faith in Action group had a mission to take church to the community – the Repair Café is that!”
Besides engagement, there’s the mission to tread more gently on Creation by repairing otherwise useful items and giving new life to broken things. These might be everyday items, but occasionally something comes in that makes a huge difference to the owner. The team recently repaired someone’s broken mobility scooter. The grateful owner said “You have made my life free again.” He donated a quantity of tea and coffee by way of thanks. Says John, “We raised £400 from donations at the February Repair Café, which goes back to the group for expenses.”
Setting up a Repair Café takes some organisational skills, says John. Things to think about include:
• Creating an effective management committee
• Insurance cover, accidents policy, first aid, food hygiene, publicity and a repair booking-in system (about 1/3 of repairs are pre-booked online)
• Fundraising to cover initial expenses (Holy Trinity obtained grants from Herefordshire Council and the Rotary Club)
• Basic ground rules, like not repairing things that would take away someone else’s living (such as altering a new piece of clothing) or anything that takes longer than about half an hour
• Finding volunteers who are handy with tools from soldering irons to sewing machines
• Organising a rota for home-made cakes and running the café
Jean is in charge of the café side of the event, with help from about 10 people. Like the repairers, some are from the congregation and some are not, and some are from other churches in the benefice. “The benefits are worth the effort,” says Jean, although she admits, “We can’t repair everything that comes in! Someone recently brought in an old doll whose eyes had got stuck. We knew how to fix it, but only if we cut its head off. The owner, not surprisingly, declined the offer.”
Both agree, it is breathing new life into the church and can be a great way to make friends, for volunteers and visitors alike. In this year of engagement, perhaps there’s still one more ‘R’ to add to our collection – ‘Relate’!
- ENDS -