This article was first published in Touchstone in March 2020.
Auckland parish members are the Methodist Alliance are doing some impressive work encouraging connections in their communities.
Auckland Central Methodist Parish partners with Orange Sky - a free shower & laundry service. The Orange Sky van comes twice a week and when they are there the parish opens the foyer and two volunteers from the congregation provide a cup of tea or coffee, a biscuit, and a friendly chat. Apparently Monday nights are turning into more of a community event, where people come not necessarily wanting or needing a shower but wanting the neighbourly connection. It is not only the street community that attend, but also some backpackers or those living in apartments without laundry facilities.
The Orange Sky van at Pitt Street Church
Manurewa Parish provides hospitality to the community on Tuesday mornings with a cup of tea/coffee and free food from Kiwi Harvest and bread from Countdown. The parish works with the local Council and Housing First to assist people experiencing homelessness to find safe, secure housing.
Northcote Takapuna Parish provide a wide range of activities for the community to connect with each other including Nancy’s afternoon tea with over 100 people attending for a cuppa and entertainment. There is a craft afternoon for children and their parents or caregivers. The parish is involved Shore to Thrive and some of these projects include:
A Repair Café where people share skills, save money and reduce the amount of material going to landfill.
A clothes share at Bayswater School which is like an op shop without money for the school community.
The Ngataringa Rat Pack – a community group which is actively protecting biodiversity along the coastline by cleaning up, setting and restocking rat control. This has resulted in NZ dotterel chicks successfully fledge for the first time in 12 years.
Kaitahi Bayswater is a community dinner made from rescued food from Kiwi Harvest. Community volunteers create dinner for the community at Bayswater School Hall.
These parishes are building strong connections in their communities and working in partnerships with other organisations. If this seems too overwhelming for you in your parish, you may like to consider how you could do something on a smaller scale during Neighbours Day Aotearoa.
Neighbours Day Aotearoa is a nationwide campaign encouraging you to connect with you neighbours and celebrate your own neighbourhood. When you’re connected to your community lots of good things happen. Even small things make a big difference.
Neighbours Day Aotearoa has a strong Methodist heritage as it was built on work done by Takapuna Parish and Lifewise. Today, Neighbours Day Aotearoa is a charitable trust led by Lifewise, Wesley Community Action, and Christchurch Methodist Mission and supported by Inspiring Communities, The Mental Health Foundation, New Zealand Red Cross, Neighbourhood Support New Zealand, Kāinga Ora, Age Concern, and many Methodist parishes.
No matter where you live – whether it is a leafy suburb, a city apartment, or a rural property, you have neighbours, and knowing your neighbours matters. Each connection you have with your neighbours makes your neighbourhood more friendly, fun and safe. When we are connected with our neighbours our neighbourhoods are stronger and more resilient. We are more able to recover quickly from difficulties when know we can ask our neighbours for support, or offer support to them. Starting from a place of neighbourly caring and generosity creates feelings of trust, safety and belonging.
Our society has increasing rates of social isolation which impacts negatively on our physical and mental health including depression, suicide, heart disease, stroke, increased stress levels, decreased memory, antisocial behaviour, poor decision-making, alcohol and substance abuse, the progression of Alzheimer’s, and altered brain function.
Loneliness is such an issue in the UK that they have established a Ministry for Loneliness and launched a cross-government strategy to tackle loneliness and reverse the negative impacts on public health.[1]
Loneliness can be overcome and one way to prevent it and improve your health is to connect with people and increase your social interactions. Neighbours Day Aotearoa is an ideal opportunity to do this. When we connect with our neighbours we are improving our spiritual, physical and emotional health and our neighbours too.
Well connected neighbourhoods are stronger, happier and healthier. When we are supported by these relationships we are more confident and empowered to take action to resolve issues and make decisions to benefit our wider community.
Check out the resources for Neighbours Day Aotearoa on their website http://neighboursday.org.nz/ and get involved and celebrate with your neighbours between March 27th and April 5th this year
Carol Barron, Methodist Alliance National Coordinator, carol@methodistalliance.org.nz
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