Chris Whitwell, Volunteer Co-Ordinator, writes:



One of the greatest privileges of a role like mine is having the opportunity to spend time listening to and talking with people. I’m sadly not able to do that with as many people as I would like, but I am incredibly thankful for every person who makes the choice to give their valuable time, freely, for the ongoing thriving of the church and its wider mission.

In a place like St Mary Redcliffe (SMR), this choice can be framed in a number of different ways. For some, it is volunteering, for others, it might be serving, discipleship or the outward expression of faith, and there are so many reasons why people make this choice to give their time.

Regardless of how we frame it, ‘volunteering’ is a powerful choice and even in those times where our motivation might be to benefit self, our freely given time is almost always to the benefit of others. I see so many examples of how others benefit from the volunteering of this community every week. Once again, thank you.

Last week, I attended a workshop with one of our Hub volunteers at Bristol University all about engaging young adults in volunteering. They surveyed their students back in 2022 and asked them about what their motivations were for volunteering. Two of the top 3 motivations for volunteering were, ‘helping others’ and ‘making a difference’.

I imagine these motivations chime with many of you too and without wanting to shamelessly start pitching for more volunteers too much, please know that there are lots of opportunities at SMR to both help others and make a difference. Please let me know if you would like to chat more about that!

I understand the pressures of time, how valuable it is and how out of control of it we can feel at times. The impact of volunteering at SMR is significant and it spans right across the day-to-day life of the church and community. No matter the role you play or the amount of time that you give, you are a part of that significant impact and finally, because you can never say it enough, THANK YOU!