“It is imperative churches play an active role in their locality by providing services for the young, vulnerable and disadvantaged within their vicinity,” says Bishop Danny Bennett, leader of Shiloh Worship Centre (SWC) in Thornton Heath, Croydon, South London.

The church is gearing up for its annual convocation, official church opening and a celebration of its work in the community.

The convocation and official opening takes place from 15 – 19 April at SWC and will comprise of daytime seminars on issues such as the family, gun and knife crime and worship celebration services in the evening.

Special guests include Presiding Prelate Dr Ruth Smith and Bishop Pitts from the US, Bishop Whittaker from the Cayman Islands, Dr Ray St James and Pastor Neville Burke from the SWC UK.

“We hope that the public and Christian community will join us as we celebrate what God is doing within our church and the wider community,” Bishop Bennett said.

SWC, formerly Shiloh United Church of Christ, has been based in south London for 41 years and has worked over the years to positively impact lives with community initiatives.

Community activities established by the church include a 24 hour helpline providing prayer, home visits and advice to people in need, sports games for the youth, a Sunday school and prison ministry that provides spiritual and practical support to prisoners and former inmates.

The church is particularly committed to work amongst offenders. Bishop Bennett explained, “We have been running a prison ministry for 15 years and have provided counselling, advice and support to inmates whilst they served their sentences. We’ve also supported inmates when they leave prison, by helping them to make contact with various social services so that they can get access accommodation, benefits and training to enable them to rebuild their lives.”

Bishop Bennett continued, “We’ve helped all kinds of people. We even have one former inmate who has visited our church a number of times, who credits us with not only helping her make that transition from prison life, to living in the outside world, but also says we helped her complete her masters degree course, thus enabling her to rebuild her life.”

Bishop Bennett believes that supporting people through the church’s range of community action programmes has been an effective tool in leading people to Christ.

“Several of the people we’ve helped over the years have become Christians and active members of our church," he said. "I believe local churches have so much to offer the community, and we are glad that we are making a positive contribution into people’s lives.

"We hope that other churches will be inspired by what we have achieved, and take steps to reach out and impact their local community.”