St Nicholas, Hornsea

Helen Ball

hfball@hotmail.co.uk

Please introduce and tell us a bit about yourself?

Hi. I’m Helen Ball and I have just started in the post of Multiply Lay Leader at St Nicholas Parish Church in Hornsea. I moved to this small rural coastal town 10 years ago from Ayrshire, Scotland, with my husband and 3 sons, who are now ages 17, 20 and 23. Prior to relocating to Hornsea, I spent a number of years teaching early years and additional needs before working as a Development Worker for several years with Church of Scotland. On moving to Yorkshire, I retrained and now work part-time as a Landscape Architect.

What attracted you to this role and Multiply?

A few years ago, during my training in Landscape Architecture, I became interested in studying the benefits of gardening and connecting with nature to our mental and physical wellbeing. We then faced the pandemic and whilst still studying, I really saw how nature and continuation of the seasons brought hope and comfort to people’s lives, including my own. I became more aware of how close I felt to God when being surrounded by nature and the benefits, not only to mental and physical wellbeing but also to spiritual wellbeing. This is where the idea of churches sharing their greenspace to create community gardens developed.

After sharing the idea with Oli Preston, who was then Multiply Minister and Green Dean at my home church, Christ Church Bridlington, we met with Rev’d Tina Stevens of St Nicholas Church, Hornsea to discover that she also had the same vision – We would bring the community together to build a community garden in the underused grass space behind the Parish Hall. Key volunteers would be from across the town’s churches and through the project, the Christian community would support and connect with the people of Hornsea in a caring and non-threatening environment, drawing people to Christ and enabling spiritual growth, whilst taking a positive approach to caring for the environment.

This is where Multiply started.

What has happened so far?

Before starting in my post in January, I have worked in a voluntary role with Multiply for one year with a small but committed team of volunteers from several of the town’s churches. We meet on a weekly basis for gardening group, which varies in size from week to week (depending on weather and job list). Community connections have developed with several home-school families and a few individuals who live alone or who are preparing to return to work. There has been support from local residents and businesses who have helped with construction elements of the garden and providing materials. To date, we have created a food growing space, wildlife area and are currently completing the quiet garden and labyrinth and constructing a potting shed. We are also building links with the local secondary school, who will be designing and constructing a natural play area.

We trialled Garden Church from April to October last year and this was attended by most of the gardening group, as well as members of a couple of the local churches and a few people from the local community. On nice sunny days, people were drawn into the garden by the music and seemed to enjoy the nature-based activities and the sharing of cuppas and cake in the garden at the end. We will be re-starting Garden Church at Easter and plan to promote it more widely across town.

We also trialled some ‘Music in the Garden’ events, hosting local musicians (mostly students from the secondary school) and a wreath-making workshop. These were very successful in bringing community together and building awareness of the project.

What are your hopes for the future with this role?

We hope to further build the volunteer team and look at new ways that we can connect with the community and share God’s love.

We will continue to develop and promote the garden project and continue to build links with wider community through our presence at local community events and by organising regular Garden Church, nature and art workshops and events in the garden and the Parish Hall.

We also plan to look at new ways of connecting with the community through social activities for young adults and their families such as music and cinema evenings, family arts and crafts, wellbeing and support groups.

In addition to the continuation of Garden Church, over the next year, we hope to start Messy Church for families and an evening worship geared towards teenagers and young adults. We are aware that community links must first be built and this will be our initial focus.

More about the garden project can be found on their Facebook Page.