Henley Churches Together

THE latest meeting of the Churches Together Forum was held at Holy Trinity Church on January 21.

The main item was a talk by Sarah Nesbitt, curate in the Shiplake, Dunsden and Harpsden Benefice, who spoke about the Street Pastors movement, and especially her experience as a street pastor in Wallingford, at the Reading Festival and during Henley Royal Regatta.

She first volunteered eight years ago when her two sons were beginning to explore the night life of Wallingford.

The Street Pastors movement in the UK started in 1993, when Les Isaac, a pastor in Brixton where there was a lot of gang warfare, antisocial behaviour and crime, asked himself what should the church be doing in a practical way to take the Good News on to the streets.

He decided to set up a team of street pastors based on what he had seen in Jamaica and recruited a team of volunteers.

On the first night that they went out there were 18 street pastors.

Since then the movement has grown and street pastors are now found in more than 300 towns and cities in the UK, with more than 14,000 volunteers, all Christians with a concern for their community.

The movement is overseen by the Ascension Trust, the charity set up by Mr Isaac in 1993.

Street pastors undergo 12 days of training (this equates to 42 hours over 18 months after commissioning) in order to voluntarily patrol the streets of towns and cities at night, helping and caring for people in practical ways.

Each team has three or four members.

In Wallingford the team meets on a Friday at 9.30pm for a briefing and will then be out until 2am.

They aim to care, to listen and to help those who maybe have had too much to drink or are in need in some other way. These are mainly, but not always, young people.

Street pastors are members of a local church who are over 18 with a concern for society and the local community, who are willing to engage with people and are happy to work in a team.

It has been found that over time, where street pastors patrol, the incidence of crime and antisocial behaviour goes down.

Street pastors have a supply of materials to give out, including lollipops and flip-flops.

In Oxfordshire and Berkshire there are teams of street pastors in Wallingford, Wantage, Abingdon, Oxford and Newbury. There is also a large team of street pastors in Reading.

It is an ecumenical movement, which is now found all over the world and has spread to other areas, so there are now school pastors, college pastors, prayer pastors, rail pastors and response pastors.

Sarah described the work that the street pastors do at the Reading Festival and during Henley Royal Regatta. At the latter a team comes from Reading and Wallingford and is based at the d:two centre.

The subject of having street pastors in Henley has been discussed previously and Sarah suggested that this year could be an opportunity for people to be involved in the prayer rota at d:two during the regatta.

For those who would like to know more there are also opportunities to go out with a patrol as an observer.

Street pastor groups are ecumenical, so if there is to be a group set up in Henley it will need to involve people from at least four of the churches.

Diary dates

Lent: Midday services at Christ Church on Thursdays, March 5, 12, 19 and 26 and April 2 from noon to 12.30pm followed by a simple lunch.

Wednesday April 8 — Taizé service, St Margaret’s Church, Harpsden (7pm).

Good Friday service at noon in Falaise Square, Henley.

Easter Day sunrise service on Mill Meadows (6.30am).

Meetings of the forum are open to all. This is a good opportunity to meet people from the other churches and to hear what is going on.

The next meeting will be held on May 14 when there will be a talk by Lisa Grant of Henley YMCA. There will also be meetings on September 1 and November 12 with talks by representatives of Nomad and Yeldall Manor respectively.

Mike Hails