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A Continuous Growth of Generosity

Date:
Tue 25th May 2021

The wonderful thing about stories is that they can grow and develop, and new stories become part of the emerging narrative. This week we share with you a story from St Giles Church, Marfleet in East Hull, which is part of the growing story of generosity from St Mary’s Cottingham.


 Jane Cotterill worships at St Giles and is part of the East Hull Stepping Up group. You can read Jane’s story here.


As part of our Stepping Up journey we have been exploring the theme of ‘Being With’ following the example of Jesus, Emmanuel who came to be with us and share all the joys and pains of human life.

Jane writes, ‘We have been looking at and thinking about how best to connect and be with our local community. We have been encouraged to spend time out in our local communities, going on prayer walks, and paying attention to what and who we see and what God might be showing us.

In Marfleet, the school is close to the church and when I’ve been out walking, I have noticed that when the parents drop off the children for school a lot of them park down Church Lane outside our church hall. When they come back, they stand and chat for about half an hour, with the preschool children running around the adult’s legs.


Our church hall is new, and is a great space, so how wonderful it would be to open up the hall to offer a place of welcome to the parents and their young children. We could have some children's toys for them to play with while the adults can sit and chat over tea and coffee in a warm, safe and comfortable space, without the concerns of the children running around on the road outside. Maybe it would be possible to get a councillor down once a month to sort out any issues they may have.’

Jane already has a good relationship with the local primary school, as she goes in to support year 6 children one to one with reading. She has been invited back into school after lockdown and hopes to begin exploring the ‘drop-in and chat idea’ with the school and parents. This will be the first step in building connections between the church and local parents. St Mary's kind and generous donation would go towards buying the toys and resources needed for this to take place.

Thank you to everyone at St Mary’s for your generosity! God bless Jane and the Rev Aian McPherson.

If you want to find out more about the Ambassadors programme please contact Heather Black, Mustard Seed Programme Leader