Westminster churches offer Warm Spaces and warmer welcomes

Warm Space at St Paul the Apostle, Wood Green

Warm Spaces established by churches are becoming places for companionship in diverse communities across the diocese of Westminster.

Caritas Westminster has been supporting a number of these Warm Spaces, as a way to provide people who have been struggling to heat their homes this winter with a place to go for warmth, a hot drink and often a meal too. But in a recent survey the charity discovered that the Warm Spaces have also become places of friendship, community and companionship.

For example, in the parish of St Bartholomew, St Albans, asylum seekers from different cultures have come together to cook soup, and Fr Richard Nesbitt from Our Lady of Lourdes in White City reported that their warm space has provided a safe and creative space for a variety of young families.

Fr Nesbitt described the scene at their Warm Space one week: "a local Syrian father was teaching his two young sons to play chess on one table, while a Ukrainian family were preparing a variety of pancake fillings with an Italian family on the next table, while the parish priest was playing dominoes with a Muslim mother and daughter at another table! All to the joyful background noise of an ecstatic group of children aged 5-8 playing their own version of football in the main part of the hall! There wasn't a mobile phone or other device in sight!"

Caritas Westminster has seen this type of companionship being repeated across the diocese. People have come together across cultures and generations, cooking, making friends, helping each other, celebrating Christmas and at least one birthday.

At St Paul the Apostle in Wood Green, where the Society of St Vincent De Paul conference have set up a Warm Space, people who had never met before are making friends and supporting each other. They reported that "Glen, a parishioner and a wheelchair user, has come every week, regardless of the weather. His journey is not easy as he has quite a distance to travel by bus, but every Wednesday, shortly after opening time, he is there. Glen says he enjoys the company and that his Warm Space visit gives him a focus for his day. 'Ian' joined us on our third week. He was just passing, saw the sign and popped in. At first, he was very reserved, but now he joins in with things, and keeps a quiet eye on Glen.." (names have been changed to protect identities).

Nineteen parishes and one community project have set up Warm Spaces in the diocese and most have received a small grant from Caritas, to go towards the heating, refreshments and other costs associated with their warm space. Fr Howard James from Bow explained what a huge difference this money has made:

"When we got the grant from Caritas we were grateful. I had been using my own resources to make soup for parish lunches on Fridays in Lent… when Lent ended I told them that we would do it again in Lent 2023… So, imagine the joy when through your donation we were able to start again, four months early! Everyone was grateful, and the joy of being with people is good. The 'warmers' get to spend time together - many of them live alone. And it strengthens my ministry to see people at ease and happy to be with each other."

Our Lady of the Rosary in Staines is a parish which has extended an existing social activity - in their case, their Gresham Junction community café, to be a warm space. According to Parish Priest Fr Philip Dyer-Perry: "Guests are eager to invite not just friends, but others who they feel would benefit from spending time here. At first, we attracted elderly parishioners, but the net has spread wider and wider - with a great cross-section of the local community dropping in... An effective and highly motivated team of coordinators means the sessions run well - including during school holiday times when everything else tends to stop."

Sr Silvana Dallanegra, who has been managing Caritas Westminster's support for these warm spaces, said: "It seems as though the needs being met aren't only for physical warmth, but for the warmth which comes from companionship and good company. And it's so lovely that this is happening, and able to happen again, after the worst of Covid."

The Warm Space initiative began as a means of helping people, many of them already struggling financially, get through a cold winter. However, as we inch our way towards spring, and the need for physical warmth lessens, the need for human warmth and hospitality continues. Some parishes have told Caritas Westminster that they would like to continue offering this space, as a time for socialising and building up the community. Warm Spaces, born out of an urgent physical need, may yet leave a very positive legacy.

Caritas Westminster is the official social outreach charity of the Roman Catholic diocese of Westminster, which covers most of London North of the Thames, and Hertfordshire. See: www.caritaswestminster.org.uk

More information on the Society of St Vincent de Paul can be found here: www.svp.org.uk/