By Angie King
It’s Tuesday morning at 10 am and the church is full of life. About forty toddlers and their parents are enjoying a variety of activities. A young artist is enthusiastically spreading paint on the paper, deeply occupied in the process of experimenting with colour and texture. Volunteers ensure everyone is involved and support parents to play with their children.
The families accessing this stay and play group represent the diversity of the local community in this part of Birmingham. The majority are Muslims of Pakistani heritage, some women wearing the ‘niqab’ or face veil and many speaking little English.
The group started in 2000 in response to the challenge ‘If God has been at work amongst us we should be demonstrating His love in our community’. An assessment of local needs identified many isolated parents with young children and ‘Seedlings’ stay and play was started in response.
Of course 2001 is synonymous with the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which led to great tension locally. There was an expectation that the neighbourhood would ‘go tribal’ as fear caused ethnic and religious groups to say ‘This is our culture, religion and space, you are not welcome’. The vision of the church was to provide a space in the community where everyone is welcome and can feel safe, valued and cared for, and so the Springfield Project was born. Links with the mosque and local community were forged and gradually attitudes within the Christian community changed. One volunteer remarked ‘We used to see Muslims as the enemy and pray against them, now they are our friends’.
By 2007 the Project was delivering a number of services to meet the needs of families with young children and was offered the opportunity of becoming a Children’s Centre, with funding to provide a full range of integrated services and a purpose-built centre. When the old church hall was demolished and services had to be delivered in the church while construction work was underway everyone wondered how the community would react. Would it cause a problem to Muslim families to come into the church for stay and play? On the first morning as families streamed into the church the fears were allayed. Those parents who did comment on the change of venue said they preferred the church stay and play because of the clear Christian values and the warm welcome.
Jesus spoke of the global community we all find ourselves part of in his parable of the Good Samaritan, loving our neighbours in attitude and action. May our hearts be open to include ‘others’ of different faiths as well as race and ethnicity.
Angie is Head of Centre at the Springfield Project in Birmingham, UK. She leads a team of 40 staff and 40 volunteers from St Christopher’s Church, other local churches and the community. Her goal is to see children and families reach their full potential.
Each Friday we focus on a particular topic. This month we are featuring the stories of women who are making a difference in their community.
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