Now Tweeting vicar takes services to people's homes
A WESTON-super-Mare church has started running mobile services in a bid to allow people to get closer to God from the comfort of their own armchair.
A team of volunteers from St Paul's Church have been visiting people, many elderly, who live alone across the town to ensure they can take Holy Communion.
Each Sunday at the regular service, additional bread and wine is blessed and then taken out in the community by a team of volunteers to people who are unable to get to the church due to illness or being housebound.
As well as visiting the homes of elderly people, the volunteers also visit residential and nursing homes across the resort.
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The Reverend Andrew Alden, pictured, who leads the church, said: "A number of people, particularly the elderly who are housebound or sick, can end up feeling very isolated from the local community.
"Many have an active faith and in the past have been members of a church.
"But because of their current situation, perhaps being housebound, sick or in a home, they feel cut off from the church community.
"This scheme means that although they cannot perhaps physically get to the church, they can still be very much part of the church community."
Volunteers running the scheme have undergone training which allows them to give Holy Communion.
There are also trained pastors among the group who can go to homes and offer prayers.
Mr Alden is now looking to expand the service in a bid to access more people who cannot get to the church services.
He added: "We are looking to expand the service and build up contacts with residential and nursing homes.
"We are also looking for people within the church community who can help us meet the spiritual needs of a range of people."
Mr Alden has introduced a number of initiatives at his church, including harnessing the power of social media to spice up his sermons.
He has already set up the Twitter link via the church's internet site and encourages worshippers to tweet comments about the sermon as part of the 'Twitter Sunday' service.
The messages from the congregation, using the hash tag #stpwsm, are displayed on eight large TV screens in the church.
The preachers then halt the sermon and respond to a handful of the Tweets made by the congregation.
As well as the church Twitterati, a Facebook group has been set up for the congregation to stay in touch and discuss topics and events at the church.
Anyone who wants to find out more about the mobile church services can contact the church office on 01934 613259.
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