Peterhead Methodist Church
Open Doorie

Some folks in the church thought it would be a good idea to open the doors of the church to the community a bit more and be more relevant to the people who usually pass us by. We decided to open on a Tuesday from 10.30am to 12 noon for a cup of tea/coffee and a biscuit, and to continue from 12 noon to 1.30pm with home-made soup and filled rolls. We decided to give it a trial between November to Christmas 2002 to see if there was a need.

Boy! Was there a need? Certainly! We started off by putting out 6 tables and now have to put out 10. There aren't so many folks coming for a cup of tea earlier in the morning, although we do seem to have our regulars, but the place is heaving from 11.45am onwards, some even reserving tables and having to come earlier to make sure they got one.

We have learned a lot since we opened the doors because we didn't have a course to go on to identify all the pitfalls. A good number of women did go on a course, however, to know how to handle and prepare the food and to be aware of food and health hygiene considerations. The soup is made on the premises. We have also worked out various systems which are helpful and useful to us and have a rota of volunteers for the various jobs who come in at the time their job requires them. We do seem to be filling a need in the community as well, because the majority of folk we serve are not from our own church. We help where we can and provide a listening ear as well as physical food for people. By popular demand we had to put on bacon rolls, so we even need a 'bacon person' to come in for 11.30am to start cooking the bacon for the rolls.

At 10am the volunteers have a prayer time and that is also the place where we discuss problems and make decisions.

We are very grateful to Wallacestone and Cullen Methodist Churches for sharing how they do things..