Mission Partners

We are currently supporting these Mission Partners through prayer and financial support and hold gift days each year for CMS, St Michael's and Cherith.

Sarah and Simon Cawdell, CMS - Gift Day Sunday 2 February 2025

Cawdells2023 Sarah and Simon Cawdell are missionaries to Gulu, northern Uganda, where Malcolm Pritchard our previous CMS Mission Partner was based. Sarah os principal of Janani Luwum Theological College, whilst Simon lectures and looks after Diocesan land. You can read about their ministry here and watch an introductory video about their ministry.

You can also read their latest newsletter from January 2025 and watch their latest video from December 2024 on life in Gulu.

Jonathan visited them in October 2024 when on sabbatical and will share his experiences on 2 February 2025 at a bring and share lunch.

Please support their ministry financially

St Michael's Church Sheerwater

St Michael’s is a shared Anglican and Methodist church situated in Sheerwater, one of the most deprived estates in Surrey. It is under a Bishop’s Mission Order which gives special emphasis and support for undertaking mission to develop a distinctive Christian community.

Sheerwater is currently undergoing a large regeneration project, rebuilding social housing and other community facilities, but with Woking Borough Council's financial problems these have been put on hold, as has the building of a new community facility in which St Michael’s church will be housed which is now looking for funding from elsewhere.

St Michael’s is a small, but growing church, very involved in the local community with groups such as:

Pop-up café for primary children with tea, games, crafts and a bible story
A toddler praise service
A Church On Wednesday group which is a Christianity basics course, attended by young mums
A monthly community Sunday lunch for the elderly and isolated

Our parish have joined the friends of St Michael’s to help fund and support in person the mission and ministry of St Michael’s and support them in prayer. An update from their vicar Rev Gillaine Holland in November 2024 is available to watch.

Cherith Withington, Safe Families

Safe Families is a Christian charity that works with 55+ local authorities around the UK and connected to over 1500+ churches/community groups. Safe Families offer hope, belonging and support to children, families, and care leavers; we do this primarily, but not exclusively, with and through local churches.

Many families we work worth are very lonely/alone, loneliness is often about isolation. Isolation, the scary kind, is when you don’t have the support networks you need to function. It could be the pregnant mum who has no one to help with her toddler, or the care leaver with the odds stacked against them. Building those support networks allows someone to feel seen, heard, and understood – and it changes lives.

Within my role as a Community Volunteer Manager, I safely recruit and train volunteers, to walk alongside these families to help and support them and to bring hope and belonging to them, to hopefully avoid the child/children being taken into care. We all need to belong, which is why building social connection is proven to reduce the flow of children into care. As we love the one in front of us, it changes lives, one lonely person at a time.

Watch Cherith's latest video from July 2024.

Steph Cox

Steph is the Children’s and Families’ Minister at Eastgate Church Gravesend and part of the leadership team. She is in charge of the teaching programme for children, a discipleship programme for young people and managing a large number of volunteers. There is a large focus on outreach with holiday clubs, community events.