Welcome warms many

The Warm Welcome winter initiative is ‘providing a catalyst for systemic change’, the Good Faith Partnership said.

The Warm Welcome campaign was set up in August last year and, as the winter approached, churches across the UK were urged to open up and provide warm shelter for those struggling to pay their energy bills. To date, 4,321 warm welcome spaces have registered – including many churches.

David Barclay, one of the partners at the Good Faith Partnership, said: ‘a movement has been born’. He explained: ‘It’s a quintessentially British kind of movement, powered by an army of volunteers, endless cups of tea and ordinary conversations … Many churches now have more people attending their Warm Welcome provision than coming along to their Sunday services, inspiring them to reimagine who they exist to serve and how.’