During the Covid pandemic, The Revd Tara Hellings, vicar of Crondall and Ewshot knew that the church needed to be there for a community more than ever.
She said that as soon as the schools were forced to close, she reached out to the local headteachers to see how the church could help, hosting online assemblies and then individual class assemblies to help children connect with what was going on around them.
“We also opened the church as soon as we were legally allowed to and essentially doubled the number of services to accommodate everyone safely. We held many smaller socially distanced services which the older people enjoyed, and then more lively outdoor worship so the younger people could join together and sing”, she said.
Five years on from pandemic, the church’s presence in the community continues to grow. In this small village setting, there are encouraging signs of growth including the recent confirmation of 23 people at a service attended by Bishop Paul. Some of those confirmed had no previous church background or had turned away from the church after childhood.
During her 12 years as vicar of the parish, Tara has come to fully appreciate the difference between the ‘church community’ (the staff, volunteers and regular worshipers) and being a ‘community church’ which is much broader. A large percentage of her ministry time is spent outside of the church building, reaching out to the whole community. She recognises there is a spiritual thirst out there, and more people are engaging her with big questions around faith and purpose.
Some of her most fruitful conversations take place in the three village pubs- part of her mission field. “The local community knows me and they know the church is there for them in happier moments but also in times of desperate need. I have so many people tell me they think they believe in God but don’t think they are religious. Others who are looking for reassurance during such uncertain times.”
A large number of the community joined the last leg of her fundraising virtual Camino de Santiago, engaging in conversations about pilgrimage through the ages, and villagers now jostle with one another to play a part in the annual Living Nativity play.
For Tara, engagement is key to bringing people to faith, and her de facto role as a community chaplain is ensuring people across the parish have the chance to hear of God’s love and to plant “the seeds of welcome” which will hopefully grow into belief.
Baptisms resulting from engagement with young families in a weekly Tinies and Tots Music session in All Saints, and the recent confirmations were a cumulative effect of that ongoing community engagement. On the much-debated Quiet Revival, Tara says that she is definitely seeing an uptick in curiosity in Christianity. She said, “When church attendance was the cultural norm, there was less thinking, but now people have deep questions around faith and spirituality.”
She is channelling that curiosity in her schools’ outreach by hosting Big Questions events, where she encourages pupils to ask anything that is on their mind. She said the topics are wide ranging. From the very young children they may ask what happens to their pet hamster when they die, but the older children will have questions around God’s acceptance of homosexuality, or questions on creationism, resurrection or the religious origins of today’s conflicts.
Tara feels there has been a vacuum where children have had “no Christian framing from their parents, and they are starting to wonder what else there is and what gives life its meaning”. Many of these issues are also raised in the Omega Course meetings she has crafted for adults who are curious about church and Christianity but haven’t attended services. A number of these heard about the course through their volunteering at the church’s Croft Café which is stocked and run by village volunteers.
She has pushed back on people who says she shouldn’t try to be a social worker, saying, “I’m not trying to be social worker, but I want the community to know that the church is here for everyone and to serve them.”