WINTER WELCOME PROJECT

A "Winter Welcome" at Holy Sepulchre - the City's largest church. 

Our wonderful Winter Warm welcome & community support project which was supported with Funding from the Community Organisations Cost of Living Fund delivered by The National Lottery Community Fund, has helped us to achieve so much during Oct '23 to 31 March '24. It has now come to an end and we set out below the impact it had, how it has increased our capacity and our organisational learning. Sadly some of these now need to be put on hold as we await additional funding but do get in touch if you want to find out more, are able to support us or just want to join us on our exciting journey. Thank you to the Government for making this possible as well as the team here, the volunteers and all those who came along to our events.”

With a grant of £75,000 from the National Lottery Community Fund, the PCC of Holy Sepulchre was able to open its Grade I listed church 7 days a week, employ two new part time staff and delivering a range of new activities, while also expanding existing ones. 

 

Our Impact:

Bringing people together

Sharing joy through music

Offering a warm welcome

Collaborating with our community

Celebrating our heritage

Serving those in need

COMMUNITY FUND

We believe in the power of music to improve lives and are committed to promoting music and making it accessible to as many as possible, alongside our worship, concerts and recitals, offering a range of music programmes covering Music for Wellbeing; Music Education; and Music & Spirituality. Various collaborations have already been piloted since June 2022 including SonghavenUK for dementia friendly concerts, the Rodolfus Foundation for choral education, and the Thomas Franks Foundation has offered to provide food for the Community Music Programme, enabling us to provide Soup & Singalong sessions as well as other community hospitality programmes. Additional partners and match funding are now sought to enable us to continue these pilots and extend the range and reach of these community focused programmes.

LOTTERY FUND

Funding from the Community Organisations Cost of Living Fund delivered by The National Lottery Community Fund, has helped us launch and run our Warm Welcome project. Thanks to the Government for making this possible!

Find out more about the Fund here :About The National Lottery Community Fund | The National Lottery Community Fund (tnlcommunityfund.org.uk)

Feedback from guests and Volunteers

“This was a delightful event from start to finish. The audience were so grateful to have a safe, welcoming space to come to and during the singing they radiated joy.”

“The church uses the possibilities for community, the arts and worship equally and to the fullest. Holy Sepulchre London is an integral part of these three aspects for the surrounding community and beyond.”

“The combination of singing with tea, sandwiches and cake, with a London tour guide speaker too, is a brilliant celebration of culture, comforts and the power of wholesome company.”

“The people are incredible. Such an amazing, universally welcoming atmosphere - extraordinary. I’ve never encountered this from every single person at a place, but here it genuinely is the case.”

“We received a warm welcome from the event organisers, church staff and the audience at Holy Sepulchre London.”

Events and Initiatives:

  • We were able to open the church 7 days a week

  • We launched our Musicalitea initiative. Offering ‘Tea, Tales, and Tunes’ to the community every week bringing people together over a cup of tea and lunch, with featured musical artists performing the ‘Tunes’ and City of London Guides regaling us with the ‘Tales’ .

  • We launched our ‘Groovin Well’ sessions, working with Moving Memory Dance Theatre. Relaxed and sociable gatherings bringing people together to loosen up, let go and have a laugh.

  • We continued our Friday lunchtime concert series, in collaboration with Music at Hill, hosting free lunchtime concerts and the opportunity to share lunch each week.

  • We launched a partnership with The Shaw Trust, using our spaces for the Refugee Employability Programme

  • We accepted additional community partners, increasing the families we support from 5,000 to 20,000 through our Generoscity initiative supplying hygiene related projects.