A bit of press coverage

Goodbye St. Peters Hall Yeovil. After serving the local community for 50 years, it's now being pulled down, to be replaced with a new community centre. Between the the church, the community association, and partners from the local council and housing association, we've raised £927,000 of £945,000 required, and demolition started on Monday.

BBC Radio Somerset did a piece earlier in the week, fast forward to 1h 32m in and then again 2h 34m in. John Clark in the second clip is a local councillor, and is the tall guy at the back.

A few other news pieces, apologies for the duplication of news and photographs!

Diocese of Bath and Wells

Somerset Live (online version of the Western Gazette)

Yeovil Press

Yarlington Housing Group

It's amazing how God has brought together the funding, the team, and the vision for the project. It started with 4 people in a chilly back room in Jan 2014, wondering what a church of 20 elderly people and a fledgling community association could possibly do with a creaking old hall. It's notable how folk who aren't part of the church are regularly commenting how it's all come together, from the project team (with every skill we needed, and every job we needed doing had someone willing to do it), to the finances (£900,000 raised in 13 months).

Youth Work Placement in Yeovil from Sept 2019

We're looking to take on a youth work trainee for up to 3 years from September 2019, to work in 2 local secondary schools, support youth groups at both churches in the parish, and explore ways of connecting with local young people beyond the church. Bed and board are provided, along with a weekly allowance and expenses. Details are here https://swym.org.uk/placements/trainee-youth-worker-3/ - if you know anyone who might be interested please point them in our direction!

The Yeovil Traffic Light Jive

local road 'improvements' have inspired one man into song. Come to Yeovil and see what all the fun is about. If your local traffic lights have gone missing, you'll probably find they've ended up here.

I know I know, #firstworldproblem.

Trainee Youth Worker role in Yeovil

If you know anyone who is thinking about training in youth work and church leadership then please point them towards this. It's the outline role description for a youth work trainee based in our parish, starting in September 2019. We provide a local placement and accommodation, training is done through South West Youth Ministries, a well established Christian training agency which oversees dozens of placements around the SW every year.

10 Clicks for £10k

At 9am today you can start voting for the New Westfield Community Centre in Yeovil to get £10,000 of funding from Aviva.

Use this link, every person gets 10 votes, and if you can use them all for our project then that would be brilliant, thankyou! Have a look at this video if you want to know what we're doing, or just read the blurb on the Aviva site.

We've raised £820,000 towards a £920,000 target, the Aviva funds will give us the money we need to kit the Community Centre out with kitchen, seating, pop up library and toys etc., so that it can be used by 5,000 local people in Yeovil, and help bring hope, life, fun and support to a whole community.

We reckon we'll need over 5000 votes to be in with a chance, which means over 500 people voting for us. Please be one of them!

Just a little project

Here's a little project I've been involved in for the last 3-4 years. It doesn't completely explain the absence of regular blogging since 2016, but its my best excuse for the moment. It's made for a Gift Day this Sunday, and hopefully by the time you watch this, the funding summary will already be out of date.

New Westfield Community Centre on Facebook

Or if you're really feeling inspired, give online here.

Appointing a Vicar

over the next few days we will be mostly doing this.

Prayers appreciated, if you're that way inclined.

Ministry in Urban Priority parishes - day conference in Taunton 22/2/17

Coming up soon, this looks good:

Mission and evangelism in ‘priority parishes’

In March 2016, the Archbishop of York with Bishop Philip North, convened a consultation in York that looked at Church of England’s ministry and evangelism in parishes that had concentrated areas of deprivation. This day conference provides an equivalent for the South West, helping to inform and continue thinking, looking from a perspective of dioceses where ‘priority parishes’ (both urban and rural) are in the minority.

Who is it for?
- Clergy and lay people who work in parishes which have significant areas of deprivation.
- Representatives from diocesan synods, rural deans and lay chairs, diocesan advisers (evangelism, mission, vocation, discipleship)

Day outline includes
Keynote address - Rt Revd Philip North, Bishop of BurnleyTheological reflection: The story so far - Revd Dr Malcolm Brown, Director of Mission and Public Affairs, Archbishops’ CouncilStories from clergy on the ground - including Tanya Lord (Diocese of Bristol) and Wendy Ruffle (Diocese of Gloucester)‘Jesus Shaped People’ - Revd Andy Delmege (Diocese of Birmingham) on the ‘Jesus Shaped People’ resource, from his perspective as new chair of the National Estate Churches Network

Booking and more information here .

Yeovil Churches statement: 'hear each other rather than fear each other'

A joint statement from Yeovil churches, which went out this week:

“As followers of Jesus we are committed to loving our neighbours. This is foundational to who we are called to be; a community of diverse people who reflect a God whose sacrificial love reaches out to each person, irrespective of nationality, belief, behaviour, or any of the other differences that so easily divide us. His love is unconditional, freely offered to the apparently ‘deserving’ and the allegedly ‘undeserving’. That is why grace is amazing.

Whatever the politics, and whichever side of the debate people are on, we encourage our whole community to seek to disagree well, to be kind and to hear each other rather than fear each other. We also pray that in the local, national and international arena, wisdom, justice and mercy will be at the heart of any discussions.

Regardless of how we voted in the recent referendum, as Christians we are committed to loving those from other nations who are here. We declare emphatically that they are welcome. We are resolved to show the same compassion towards them as we seek to show towards all other members of our community. They are important in God’s eyes, so they are important to us. And we will stand alongside them, and against prejudice, discrimination and hatred.

Jesus consistently welcomed strangers and valued those whom others disliked.

He still does, and we stand with Him.”

"My role as a church leader is to empty the church"

Great interview with Adam Dyer, from our own Yeovil Community Church, by the Evangelical Alliance:

So my role as church leader isn't to fill the church, but to empty the church – we run these projects not to get people in to the church but to get the church into the community. That idea that our neighbour is right there, that there's brokenness  right there, that we can share this journey with people. Jesus came bringing the kingdom one act of love at a time, and we as a Church are invited into this movement.

Gearing Up

One reason blogging is a bit quiet here is that we've a little project on. It's 160 years since the last major refit of our church, when Preston Plucknett was a village of 250-300 people. Long since swallowed up by Yeovil, the church now serves a parish of 15,500, with 5000 people coming through the doors each year. Seating for 90 and a regular congregation of 110-120 is an issue - a nice issue, but still an issue!

We were encouraged this week by this story from a church near Nottingham. Having played cricket a few years back for 'Stabbo' as it was 'affectionately' known, the headline 'why is everyone turning to God in Stapleford' got my attention. It turns out that 8 years ago they went through exactly what we're going through - a refit of the church and then the vicar leaving. Since then the church has grown by 40%. I hope that's not just migration from other churches who don't have underfloor heating and comfy chairs.

If you're the praying sort, please pray for us - we're most of the way to the £350,000 we need, but are waiting on some major grants. Thankyou!

It is possible to run a half marathon in a cassock and surplice

possible, but I wouldn't advise it as a habit.

https://www.justgiving.com/David-Keen4/

Help the Rev Run!

This Sunday (Palm Sunday) I'll be running the Yeovil Half Marathon in full clergy gear, to raise money for a project to refit our parish church. We have the great problem that the congregation no longer fits in the building, and having an uncomfortable, inflexible, often cold church isn't a great experience for the thousands who pass through our doors every year.

https://www.justgiving.com/David-Keen4/ is the place to go if you'd like to sponsor me.

PS don't tell the Bishop, I think we're all supposed to be on duty in church on Palm Sunday. Do you think anyone will notice?

Childrens Mental Health treatment: Free, but 55,000 miles to the point of delivery.

You might find the following account hard to believe in the UK in 2016, but it's the real ordeal of a local family, whose teenage daughter developed mental health problems after bullying. They live in Yeovil, but just look at the places where their child ended up for 'care'....

"We've had to section her on seven occasions, the first being in September 2013 - that was at Sevenoaks in Kent, she was there for about eight weeks."

Since her first admission, she has spent periods in mental health hospitals in Southampton, Manchester, Woking, Norwich and finally Orpington in Kent.

She has had to be treated hundreds of miles away from her home because there are no inpatient beds available in Somerset.

Her parents have visited her virtually every weekend as she was battling her illness, spending £25,000 and racking up 55,000 miles of travel just to see her.

"She would get put in different hospitals - from Southampton she was moved to Manchester for a weekend, and then spent four months in Woking. Many of these mental health hospitals are privately owned, they're profit-making organisations. Often it appears they never have enough staff."

Her mother said that it was "heartbreaking" to be separated from their daughter by such huge distances. She said: "I feel as though I've missed out on two and a half years of our daughter growing up. You get a phone-call at night and she's crying her eyes out and you're like 250 miles away and you know there's nothing you can do to help her."

"We've spent £25,000 over the last three years just to see our daughter - that's food, accommodation, petrol, taking her out to places, everything. A lot of other people can't afford to do that. We were told that either the NHS or the county council would reimburse transport costs, but we've heard nothing from either. There's no continuity of care. We've never been back to the same hospital; it's always a different psychiatrist or a different doctor, and it's soul-destroying."

This is scandalous. It's enough of an ordeal to have an ill child, but how on earth is all of that supposed to help the child recover? 

This is not a one-off, it's happening repeatedly to adults as well as children, and school heads are now flagging up mental illness as a major concern. 

Run, Fat Vicar, Run

Cassock, dog collar, running shoes. I've probably set myself a stupid challenge in trying to combine that outfit with the Yeovil Half Marathon in March, but it's all in a good cause. If you get anything at all out of reading my blog, then please do consider sponsoring me. 

I'm planning to run the 13 and a bit miles in full clergy outfit to raise £2020 towards a refit of our church (600th birthday in 2020). Neither the congregation nor the community fits into it any more. Either we adapt, or we move out, but it's such a beautiful and prayerful place that abandoning it for a shed on an industrial estate isn't an option.

Not that I'm competitive, but this chap up the road did the full London Marathon, and raised more than 5x what I'm aiming at. He also looks like he's fit enough. Me? Well, I've done 21k on the exercise bike...... 

This Years Christmas Services - St. James Yeovil

'It's your busy time of year' - it's a different kind of busy, but here's our Christmas services this year

Sat 12th  4pm Christingle service, St. James Preston Rd, with Christingle oranges for everyone and a special charity collection for the Childrens Society
Sat 12th 4-6pm Messy Church Christingle, St. Peters Coronation Avenue

Sun 13th 10.30am Christmas Cafe Service, Abbey Community Centre

Fri 18th 4pm Christingle service, Palmers Garden Centre, with the Salvation Army Band. Come early for a seat, usually standing room only.

Sun 20th 4pm, 6.30pm Carols by Candelight St James Preston Rd, with mulled wine and mince pies between the two services

Christmas Eve
3pm and 5pm Nativity Service, St. James Preston Road
11pm Holy Communion, St. James

Christmas Day: 10.30am Family Communion, St. James

Those are all the public ones, there's also 11 other gigs involving nurseries, schools, Scouts, playgroups and the local Childrens Centre. All in all it'll be somewhere between 1500-2000 people involved in 'all of the above'. Which is all very exciting.

A Christmas talk telling the nativity story through chocolate ended up being repeated by popular demand (I think the kids just thought they might get some of the choccy at the end), this year the challenge is to tell the story using crisps. It won't be deep, and probably fairly uneven, but at least Wenceslas would be happy with 1/3 of it. .....Herod hoped the wise men wouldn’t Twig: ‘let me know where he is so that I can worship him too.’   still needs quite a bit of work!!

Yeovil 4 Family - Award for local family support charity

Yeovil4Family were one of 7 winners at the Centre for Social Justice awards last week. Great local example of the church in action, offering holistic support for families, .

A New 'Nooma' ? - Great meditation on Thankfulness

Once upon a time lots of people got very excited about Rob Bells 'Nooma' DVDs, at the time a new and clever way to communicate. They're still worth a look:


There are now Christian DVDs everywhere, but these have grabbed me recently. A local church is doing a series on '7 life-changing habits', here's the clip for 'Thankfulness', and each theme comes with an accompanying pdf for personal or small group use.



"we are already the richest and most well-developed generation in history, and yet we are also the most in debt, medicated, depressed, overweight, stressed-out, addicted generation in history."

New Yeovil Counselling Service

Counselling4Yeovil is a Christian organisation offering affordable professional counselling in Yeovil to people of any or no faith. We aim to communicate our unconditional acceptance and valuing of each person we work with and to respect each person's right to make their own decisions about how to live.

We developed from Yeovil Pregnancy Crisis Centre which has been counselling women in Yeovil since 2007 on issues surrounding pregnancy, miscarriage, abortion and infant death. We continue to offer a free counselling service to women and their partners dealing with these issues.

Website here.

A much needed new service, NHS mental health services are way past full stretch, and that is as true in Yeovil and South Somerset as anywhere else. There are some good ideas around - e.g. the 'Triangle of Care' - but mental health is currently an area where voluntary, community and private healthcare groups are needed to fill the holes in the safety net.

Counselling4Yeovil has a team of fully qualified counsellors, and though it has a Christian basis, it's open to people of any faith position, and aims to make counselling available to all, regardless of ability to pay.

Yeovil Election Hustings 5th May

Yeovil churches are hosting a hustings on Tuesday 5th May, 7.30pm at the Gateway (home of Yeovil Community Church) Addlewell Lane, Yeovil. All 5 candidates are going to be there, which is an improvement on last time, when (due to the presence of the BNP, and some not wanting to share a platform with them) the candidates appeared one by one and never got to engage directly with each other.

Questions can be put on the night, but you'll need to be there by 7pm to give us time to sort through them and choose a good cross-section of issues. There's refreshments afterwards, and the event is free.

the local candidates are:

David Laws                Liberal Democrats

Emily McIvor             Green Party

Marcus Fysh               Conservative Party

Sheena King                Labour Party

Simon Smedley           UK Independence Party

David Laws won the seat with 55% of the vote last time, but faces the double headwind of the Libdem post-coalition slide, and his personal involvement in the expenses scandal. Despite that, YouGovs 'nowcast' snapshot has Laws as the favourite again, which may leave him as the last Libdem standing in Somerset. 

There are blue and orange posters starting to appear in greater numbers around Yeovil, and David Camerons flying visit the other day is a sign that the Conservatives are after Yeovil too. It's not in the top 75 seats where the Conservatives were closest last time, which probably indicates that the blues are giving up trying to topple the tougher Labour marginals and going after the Libdems instead.  

If you're in the area, come along, should be an interesting night....