| IT WAS launched in Ludlow, Hereford diocese, in January, and Kathleen Boyland, a Church Army Evangelist, now has three regular CoffeeCraft groups running in different places in south Shropshire, and hopes to set up several more.
The idea is a simple one: a nicely laid out café environment, open to anyone, with the opportunity to learn new crafts or redevelop old ones. Ms Boyland tells me she has a background in crafts, and is able to tutor people in up to 30 different skills, from macramé to glass painting: from quilting to modelling in polymer clay.
But the craft is only part of it. Bringing people together with something to occupy their hands can enable them to talk to each other, or to open up to sympathetic listening by Ms Boyland or one of her volunteers. “With their hands engaged, their minds and emotions seem to be set free to talk about things in a way they couldn’t in other circumstances,” she says.
Friendships are formed, and although it is not overtly Christian, it is set in a Christian context. “I run a library, mostly my own books,” she tells me, “and we have some Fairtrade goods on sale, and also a prayer tree”.
The aim is to help individuals who do not attend formal church meetings to build their skills and their self-esteem, and to share in the love of Christ.
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