New shop will benefit church and community
Boring Wells, based in St Christopher’s Church in Mersey Street, has opened up a shop as part of their commitment to social enterprise. ‘Well Made’, on the Belmont Road in East Belfast is a vintage clothing shop which also sells various arts and crafts handmade by members of the local community. Manager Julie Ryan, who belongs to the church, is very passionate about this initiative.
“This is a very exciting adventure in which we as a shop can help the church by raising funds for projects and also help the wider community. We’re providing a shop front for local crafters and also welcoming volunteers on–board, enabling them to experience the workplace and offering them training and employment skills.”
On the first floor of the shop are the offices of the virtual bookshop, ‘The Book Well’, run by Julie’s husband, Richard. Richard set up The Book Well as a means of helping resource the Church of Ireland following the closure of The Good Book Shop. His hope now on opening is that his customer base will broaden to other denominations in the area. He says:
“The Book Well is primarily an online resource, but I wanted an office space to allow customers to collect their orders and give them a chance to browse. There used to be a Brethren owned bookshop on the Belmont Road which closed a couple of years ago and I’ve been encouraged by conversations I’ve had with passers–by who belong to other churches in the area who are excited that another Christian resource is opening on their doorstep.”
How does all of this connect to the church? Leader of Boring Wells, Revd Adrian McCartney, explains:
“A few years ago we re–shaped ourselves as a charity. This was a deliberate strategy, not denying our status as a church, but to enable us to journey in the world of community work alongside other agencies and charities. Our claim is that we do community development from a Christian perspective.
“The Social Enterprise Programme allows us to create income from small businesses that can be channelled back into the community projects. At present we run a food bank, a monthly event for teenagers with severe and profound learning difficulties, a variety of teenage programmes across the usual divisions, family events, food preparation, cooking, healthy eating, a residents’ group and hopefully more in the future.
“When you add all of this to some of the more normal church activities you end up with an exciting mix of faith lived out in the real world. In the ecclesiastical world this is called a Fresh Expression of Church.”
Well Made can be found at 73 Belmont Road, and is open Tues–Sat 10.00 am–5.00 pm.
You can order direct from The Book Well by clicking on www.thebookwell.co.uk
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