On mission
Here at Emmanuel we encourage everyone to reach out and serve the community, as an outworking of their faith – in particular to support some of society’s more vulnerable people.
While some choose their own focus, there are several projects that we deliver jointly with other Christians locally and nationally. Here, you can find out more.
Additionally, individuals are constantly developing new ideas and a mentoring process is available to help develop dreams into reality.
Durham Christian Partnership
We work closely with Durham Christian Partnership which runs a number of projects drawing on people from across County Durham churches.
Specific projects include:
More on all Durham Christian Partnership activities can be found at www.durhamchristianpartnership.org.uk
God Loves
God loves us. And here at Emmanuel we seek to demonstrate God's love for us by serving our local communities.
God Loves is an annual mission week, during which we focus on serving communities around us.
Compassion for Kids
Our Compassion for Kids project seeks to promote the work of two charities: Home for Good, which promotes fostering and adoption, and Safe Families for Children, which seeks to support families, parents and children, before they reach crisis point.
For more information, contact Ian.
Support for refugee families
Since May 2016, we have helped to gather items for welcome packs on each of the three occasions that Syrian refugee families have arrived and begun life in County Durham. A few of us have also met some of the families to welcome, befriend and offer support (e.g. in English conversation).
We have a group, Supporting Refugees, which coordinates refugees’ needs with offers of help and donations. If you would like to be involved please contact Sheila Alty via email altysheila@gmail.com to be joined up.
As well as the collection of practical items there is a continuing ministry (dependant on the area in which each group of refugees is settled) in welcoming, befriending and help with conversation.
Jubilee+
Jubilee+ is a team set up by Newfrontiers churches across the UK, aimed at equipping churches to engage more effectively with communities and, particularly, to help them increase their capacity to serve the poor.
Jubilee+ is involved in a wide range of projects and initiatives – training leaders, providing resources, bringing encouragement, establishing networks, doing research, developing relationships with partner organisations and running conferences.
For more information, visit www.jubilee-plus.org
Other mission
Individuals within our church are also involved in: prison visiting, Sanctuary 21, Re-f-use CIC, Junction 42, Food Cycle, OwnIt, St Cuthbert's Hospice, Open Mapping and many more.