St Gregory's church in Sudbury had received £500 Growing in God funding to help them set up a Covid - safe gazebo in the final Sudbury market for the run up to Christmas last year. The funding had helped them put together over 100 Christingle bags to give away, in preparation for their online Christingle service, along with nearly 500 Christmas cards with a Christmas message on one side and their Christmas services on the other. They were also able to create Christmas window scene trail map with locations of parishioners windows around the parish decorated with a Christmas scene. All of these initiatives were designed to reach out to unchurched people as well as churchgoers and to be safe.
The gazebo especially looked grand, and featured a newly designed logo. our gazebo that this grant paid for. Thanks to the redesign, it really stood out in the market square and helped to build identity and familiarity with those who don’t come to the church, along with helping the church to build their reputation as somewhere that is trustworthy and engaging.
The chruch had managed to give away all one hundred Christingle bags by midday. Over the course of the day they also managed to give away nearly all of the Christmas cards and maps, which were also downloadable from the website and had been given out in both of their two CofE primary schools. As well as this, there were lots of fantastic conversations happening throughout the day, and meeting lots of new people, especially young families and their children. This was topped off by a really strong attendance at their Christingle Online service with 79 participants, which is more than their previous in-church service last year.
The church plans to run a stall ahead of Holy week with a different offering for Easter, as well as provide the same initiative again at Christmas.
