Churches opening to act as community PPE hubs

Churches across the Diocese of St Asaph are becoming PPE distribution hubs to help communities remain safe from Coronavirus.

The Diocese of St Asaph is distributing face visors made by PPE Hwb Wrecsam, a community interest company which started at the beginning of lockdown. The first three churches – St Peter’s in Holywell, St Mark’s in Wrexham and All Saints in Newtown – will be opening so members of the local community can collect face visors.

The Engagement Officer for the Diocese of St Asaph, Sarah Wheat, is coordinating the distribution through churches.  She said: “All Saints Church in Newtown is the first church to have collected face visors to distribute in their local community from this Sunday (28 June).  The other two churches will be starting in July.

“The churches will be open at set times, advertised locally, and adhering to strict safety and social distancing measures, for people to collect the visors.

“While they are not medical-grade PPE, they will provide an effective and efficient see-through and comfortable face-covering for anyone in need.  Hwb Wrecsam is already supplying care homes, GPs surgeries, opticians, cleaners, teachers and taxi drivers as well as plenty of others, such as hairdressers who will require PPE once their business can resume.

“With our churches beginning to re-open for private prayer, we can provide a network of distribution points to help communities keep safe as lockdown eases.”

Volunteers from All Saints Church in Newtown will be distributing their allocation of face visors from Newtown Methodist Church, which is used every Sunday to cook roast dinners for those in need in Cedewain Mission Area.  The Methodist Church will be open from 1pm – 1.30pm for the collection of face visors.  St Mark’s Church in Wrexham will be open Mondays and Thursdays 2-3pm from 6^th July onwards for PPE collection.  Details for St Peter’s in Holywell have not yet been finalised.

PPE Hwb Wrecsam was started by a Vicar and her family and supported by volunteers during the first weeks of lockdown.  The Revd Rebecca Sparey-Taylor and her husband, Graham, a lecturer in Engineering at Wolverhampton University challenged their two sons, Joseph aged 13 and Isaac aged 11 to set up a 3D printer and make a face visor.  The boys found a plan online and started production.  Within a few weeks, the family had been joined by a team of volunteers operating a pool of 30 printers based at Ysgol Clywedog in Wrexham.

Since then, production has shifted to Gresford, a community interest company has been formed and the visors have passed the CE mark testing by a notifiable body, required for Covid 19 PPE.  The team is finalising the paperwork for this approval.

Rebecca said: “I am so pleased that churches can be part of the solution to distribute suitable PPE to anyone in need.  The face visors are provided free of charge, with the hwb supported by donations.  Each visor costs about £1 to produce so additional donations mean visors can be given to those in health and social care settings.”

Rebecca Sparey-Taylor was ordained as a priest by the Bishop of St Asaph at St Asaph Cathedral two years ago. In February 2020 she was appointed as a priest in the Denbigh Mission Area but her move to Trefnant has been delayed due to Coronavirus restrictions.

The Diocese of St Asaph is one of the six dioceses of the Church in Wales, an independent Province of the Anglican Communion.  In usual times, regular services and activities take place in 214 churches and the diocese looks after 50 Church in Wales Schools.

To find out which churches are acting as PPE hubs, visit https://dioceseofstasaph.org.uk/coronavirus/supporting-your-community/

To find out more about PPE Hwb Wrecsam, visit http://ppehwbwrecsam.org.uk/