St Mary’s Church, Nettlestead, PCC voted to become Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Friendly in the autumn of 2024. Several of the regular congregation had many positive memories of Gypsies and Travellers coming every year to help with the hop picking and harvesting fruit but regular contact had been lost in recent times until their Parish Evangelist, Jackie Bennett, started a warm spaces scheme with the hospitality of a nearby pub.
Beginning with mainly elderly people, the warm space developed to be a small community hub with both the elderly and young people finding themselves welcome. Jackie had managed to secure a small grant to provide table tennis and darts and the pub already offered the use of its pool table. Young Gypsy and Traveller people heard what was happening and asked to join in. Jackie now knows many of their wider families.
When the PCC approved the motion to become a Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Friendly Church a date was set to mark this. The harvest service was chosen and a cart wheel made by one of the Travellers was proudly displayed decked out with hops and fruits to mark the past shared history.
Jackie is a regular and welcome visitor to the local sites, where Gypsies and Travellers live. She is planning to start some informal services at St Mary’s for the communities in the afternoon including a puppet show, songs, crafts, tea and cake. Jackie, speaking for herself and other members of the Church, says ‘ We’re trying to make them aware that church is there for them, and they are welcome to come…The most important thing is to build up trust because, historically, many of these peoples have been treated badly.
Photo By Hywel Williams, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9130352
