In these unprecedented times, the changes happening in one week feel like a year. At Holy Trinity Blacon, this has the feel of God’s perfect timing at work.
On 23 March, as Boris Johnson announced to the nation that we should all stay at home, the church hall at Holy Trinity Blacon had just begun work as one of two hubs serving the 14,000 population of Blacon with emergency food, organised by a multiagency collaboration called Blacon Action Team. Tressel tables had been set up in the hall to ease the assembly of food bags to be distributed around the community.
The shelving, freezers, and fridge had only been installed the previous week, the room in which they were installed had only been built the previous month, and painting completed on 07 March.
The charity Blacon Beacon had only been formed at the church the previous year, and grants to pay for it were obtained in November 2019. The collaboration which enabled the Action Team to come together was facilitated by conversations held over months, culminating in a conference held in January 2020 attended by 44 local organisations.
Incumbent the Revd Tina Upton says: "Looking back, it seems clear that the ground was being prepared for this emergency response to be possible. It seems to us that God was at work, ensuring things were ready for this particular time. And taking a longer view, that groundwork goes back not just months, but years."
Blacon Beacon is the trading name for Pantry for Blacon CIO (registered charity 1183763)