Holiday at Home Shares God’s Love in Uffculme

A church in Mid Devon invited people in the community to a rock and roll afternoon tea with live music as part of a four-day summer holiday outreach.

Uffculme Holiday@Home took place at St Mary’s church in the village and was aimed at bringing people together and using the building in an imaginative way.

Each day’s events linked to a group that will be restarting or developed during the autumn term within the mission community.

Activities including crafts, a quiz, puzzles and a film club were aimed at adults and children across the community and not just regular church goers.

The organisers said they had been encouraged by the sponsorship and funds they have received from Uffculme parish council and from the non-Anglican churches in the village.

Claire Nichols, who manages the church-run Square Corner community space as well as being the Community Development Worker said, “Uffculme Holiday at Home was a wonderful week!

“The community embraced the idea and came together in a way that we couldn’t have imagined when we planned the week.

“I think that at its heart it was showing love to our village, bringing people of all ages together to relax and have fun and helping our church to reimagine how we can use our building and churchyard to bless our community in new and creative ways.”

All the events were free and received an enthusiastic response from locals.

Curate of St Mary’s, Gudrun Thomas, said, “It was an amazing week. We had planned the events to give space for the community to come together but it did much more than that.

“It touched the hearts of all ages and brought together all parts of the local community to enjoy being together once again.

“At the same time it offered St Marys a chance to share God’s love through service and fun.”