BANGOR

RED CROSS: is looking for volunteer drivers and helpers to assist at Ysbyty Gwynedd and in people’s homes – contact Corinna on 01248 351103

ROYAL VOLUNTARY SERVICE: is looking for new volunteers to join the team and help with its Community Transport, Good Neighbours and Positive Steps services in Gwynedd and Ynys Mon. If you have a few spare hours a week and would like to make a difference in someone’s life, the RVS would like to hear from you. Contact Gwenda Hughes on 01248 661915 or Gwenda.hughes@royalvoluntaryservice. org.uk

SSAFA GWYNEDD: Seeks new caseworkers in the Gwynedd area to help and support veterans and their families. If you can help, contact Andy Williams 07958524298.

CHURCHES TOGETHER: The Christian Church has responded with determination and resilience to countless crises over 2000 years. The current epidemic is no exception. Within a few days of the Prime Minister’s first press conference, all ten of the Bangor Churches Together were using combinations of Internet, social media, phone and post to worship Jesus Christ, to care for their congregations, and to serve the wider community of Bangor. Many of those congregations are over 70 or vulnerable to the coronavirus; and many have no access to the web. So pastoral care is now mainly by phone. Churches are streaming services via the Internet, for example the English-speaking Methodists are using https://www.youtube.com/ channel/UCUAUqhmhevz5sqhh72LIMxA;

or delivering them by email, post or hand. Several Church groups have adopted virtual meetings accessed by web or mobile phone. Since 2011, Bangor Cathedral Foodbank has helped families who cannot afford enough food, supported by donations from individuals, businesses, schools, churches and other charities. For the last year the Cathedral has also run Caffi Deiniol in Deiniol Shopping Centre as a ‘fair price’ café that also provides subsidised meals to those in need. Once the Government told cafés to close in response to the virus, the Foodbank moved from the overcrowded Diocesan Centre beside the Cathedral to Caffi Deiniol, thus achieving much better social distancing. To complement the Foodbank, St John’s Methodist Church have for the past year delivered a Soup Run on Saturday evenings to support the homeless of Bangor. The enforced closure of Caffi Deiniol has led them to transform this to a safe afternoon run on the four days a week when the Foodbank is not open. Anyone who is fit and aged less than 70 is welcome to contribute to the Foodbank or the Soup Run by texting Ian Russell on 07 564 347 811. Thus Bangor Churches are responding to the epidemic with love and care. But they hope and pray that responding to the coronavirus will help to redefine the role and methods of the Churches in the 21st Century.