Outreach
Our parishes support a number of projects within our local community and the wider world, mainly in partnership with other local Christians and agencies. If you'd like to get involved with any of these, please ask the parish office for further details.
Parish Projects
Each year both parishes choose a local and an overseas project to support through fundraising and donations. In 2020 these are:
Overseas Projects
St Joseph's, Portishead is supporting the Place of Mercy and Hope. This Thursday at 8pm we will be hosting a live interview with Sr Martha and Sr Breda who will be speaking to us from South Africa about their amazing work during the pandemic. You can make a donation to their work using this PayPal button.
Toilet Twinning
St Francis Nailsea are supporting Toilet Twinning. With the importance of good sanitation in combatting the spread of coronavirus this is a wonderful project for us to support.
Our aim is to twin each of our parish toilets with one in another part of the world. Parishioners can also twin their own toilets directly. You can donate to this project using the button below.
Home projects
Christians Against Poverty (CAP)
St Joseph's, Portishead is supporting CAP. CAP is a national organisation specialising in debt counselling for people in financial difficulty, including those in need of bankruptcy or insolvency. Together with other local Christians we support our local debt centre financially and with volunteers.
Faith and Light
St Francis, Nailsea is supporting our local faith and light community. Faith and Light is a Christian association that includes people with learning disabilities or learning difficulties, their families and friends which meets monthly to grown in faith, fun and friendship.
Ongoing partnerships
Foodbank
In partnership with other local Christians, we support our local foodbank. This is based in Clevedon, with branches in Nailsea and Portishead and provides emergency food to people in crisis. Our parishioners volunteer to help distributing food. We also collect food for the foodbank in the porch of our church. Finally, we distribute vouchers to people in need so that they can access the foodbank.
Julian Trust
The Julian Trust runs an emergency night shelter located in the centre of Bristol for homeless people and rough sleepers. A number of our parishioners help at the shelter, mainly in cooking and serving meals. We also have a box in the lobby of the church where you can leave donations of food and clothes for the shelter.
Wellspring Counselling
Wellspring was established as a registered charity in 1994 by local Church Leaders and GPs. Wellspring offers confidential help and support to people in our local community. Wellspring offers a unique service in the North Somerset area making Counselling accessible to all in a timely and cost effective manner. A number of our parishioners are volunteer counsellors for Wellspring. We also contribute to financially support the project.
