From her office in the op shop at the Homestead Community Church in Point Chevalier, the Rev Sandra Warner keeps an eye open for those coming in not to shop but to chat or ask for help.
The minister’s office is in the op shop not because of a space shortage but for strategic reasons, says Sandra. “The op shop is where the community gathers; it’s a real magnet and that’s why I can be found here”.
Sandra says that the local community knows they can use the phone and share their issues. “We have regulars who live alone who might not get to talk to anyone very often. Just through chatting with one elderly woman, I found out that she thought she had arranged Meals on Wheels but none had arrived, so with her permission I sorted out the confusion.”
The op shop has not always been at the centre of the church’s mission. Just nine months ago, it was known as Point Chevalier Cooperating Parish and was located down the road at St Philip’s.
Roger Jones, an elder and the manager of the Homestead, says, “the Point Chev Cooperating parish council had discussed over the years the idea of having the Homestead, which is two 1880s villas we purchased in 1975, as the church - but it was never the right time.”
A well-used community house, more than 20,000 people pass through the Homestead’s doors every year.
“We knew the community felt welcome there,” Roger says. “When Sandra came to us as our minister in 2008 she brought the energy and enthusiasm we needed to make the move happen.”
The decision to relocate to the Homestead took six months of the parish council and congregation meeting, talking and praying together, Sandra says.
The last service was held at St Phillip’s, which is in the process of being sold, in July 2009 and services commenced at
the Homestead, now renamed the Homestead Community Church, in early August 2009.
Sandra says that the congregation chose to make the Homestead services more informal “because the minister standing at the front speaking wasn’t what we wanted; we want everyone to have the opportunity to speak”.
In late 2009 the church began an all-ages, family-friendly Sunday morning gathering that includes games, activities and a morning tea. “We have families come along regularly that before I’d describe as ‘fringe’ and we also have some people from the community that join us.”
The “usual” worship follows on at 10.30am. Sandra says that although this congregation numbers only 30 at the moment, they think of the entire community “as a part of us” because of the hundreds of people flowing through the Homestead every week.
About 50 girls attend Girls Brigade in the building and many community groups make use of its rooms, including: the Sunshine Club, Probus Club, music groups including a steel guitars club, a yoga group, craft groups, friendship clubs, an over-50s keep-fit group, and a Jewish worship and study group.
The church has turned its large back lawn over to the community for a community vegetable garden. Sandra says they were approached by Transition Towns Point Chevalier about renting a room for a meeting. “After Roger and I found out what they are trying to achieve, which is to help the community to feed itself, we saw an opportunity and offered them use of our land in June last year. It’s another way that we can help our community, and share the love of God through being practical.”
Local families grow vegetables for themselves and donate surplus vegetables to the church’s op shop. “They had a bumper crop of beans so we had a huge boxful in the op shop free to everyone,” Sandra says.
The church will soon apply for funding to renovate the Homestead villas to better fulfill its mission. “The op shop is the centre of our planning; we would like to have a lounge area so that people can sit and chat or read, join each other for a cup of tea, use the phone and be comfortable. It’s a way to show the community that they are very welcome to spend time with us”.
Visitors are enjoying more than tea at the op shop; the parish bought 37 new Bibles and left them inside the opshop, for anyone to take – and there aren’t many left.
By Angela Singer