Thanksgiving and celebration were on the menu on the 10th September for the first birthday of the Wellbeing Café at St Wilfrid’s Church, Brayton near Selby.

Many members and friends of St Wilfrid’s joined other local clergy and council staff for a church service and buffet lunch, taking the opportunity to see what the café does and some of what it achieves.

The café offers support in a safe loving Christian environment for those whose lives are affected by mental health conditions (including carers and family members), where Christ is very much at the centre of everything.

Churchwarden Claire Hodgson (pictured with other volunteers, 5th from left) said, “The Café is about us being disciples of Jesus in a world where there is so much pain, and to enable others to live their life in all of its fullness by showing them the love of Christ who comes beside us, if we let Him, in our deepest pain.

“Jesus will never turn us away, regardless of our background.”

As well as meeting for coffee and cake, Café volunteers and customers occasionally produce crafts to raise funds. They are currently looking for donations of chocolate bars, mixed sizes, to turn into Santa Sleighs to sell at the Autumn Fair (contributions of chocolate bars can be left at the back of the church).

Claire added, “Is it really a year since the Café started? We have been extremely blessed over the last year, and we go from strength to strength.

“I would like to say a huge thank you to all our volunteers, past and present, for their help and support over the past year. Without their help we would never have got to this point.”

www.stwilfridsparish.com/wellbeingcafe.html