Wharfedale News
Yeadon counts its blessings
7:00am Monday 20th February 2012
If people in Yeadon are feeling a little more blessed than usual this year, it could be something to do with their local church.
Members of St John’s Church are making blessing the local community their aim for 2012.
As well as offering to pray with people in the town centre for any kind of need, the congregation is planning to give seasonal gifts to shoppers to remind them how special they are.
They are also offering to pray a blessing on people’s homes and are looking for ways to bless local shops, businesses, and even councillors, MPs, police and school staff.
Vicar Richard Walker said: “Every church exists to serve its local community, but so often congregations can become inward- looking. This year is our opportunity to look outward and to pray and work for God’s blessing on the whole parish of Yeadon.”
As well as running various blessing projects, St John’s will be host to fun events for local people, such as a pantomime, a street party for the Queen’s Jubilee, and a sing-a-long cinema night.
Members want to discover more ways they can serve local needs in the long-term – and are asking for any suggestions.
The Rev Walker said “God Bless Yeadon” was an idea picked up from a retreat centre at Ffalyd-y-Brenin in Wales that has been praying blessings upon its local community with some “remarkable” results.
“However, we want to do more than pray for blessings. We want to be a blessing too, even if only in a small way,” he said.
Although St John’s already runs various activities for the community, these are based in the church – and now members want to take “kindness and practical help” outside to people it wouldn’t normally have much contact with.
“We very much hope there will be a positive response from many local people. When we trialled a couple of our blessing activities last year, we were pleasantly surprised at how glad people were to talk with us, to find out what we were doing and to share their views,” Mr Walker said.
For further information, see stjohnsyeadon.org/godblessyeadon.