Every November Genesis Trust holds a Church Leaders’ Meeting for people in local church and chaplaincy leadership positions. As part of the Church in Bath it’s important that we keep communicating our good news, project reports, developments and plans for the future. Traditionally, this has been in person with refreshments, a projector and screen, chairs, tables and all the hardware needed for a gathering of folk in one place. Last year this was at our Gateway Centre for the first time and it was meaningful to share how staff and volunteers support homeless and vulnerable people in the actual location.

This year, of course, it was a ‘first’ again for the Genesis team to hold our Church Leaders’ Meeting on Zoom. No arranging of chairs, setting up the screen and projector  or making sandwiches for this meeting but rather, the technical preparations of learning how to share screens, co-host, zoom etiquette, raising hands, taking questions through the chat function and recording.

As much as all this matters for the running of a successful online meeting, it is the content of the meeting that is most important. The first piece of good news was from Sir Peter Heywood who launched our revised Vision, Mission and Values after many months of work by our Board of Trustees.

We also heard from our projects and how they have been adapting to the new ways of working and supporting clients. This included really encouraging signs of success from our new Life Recovery Course; the vital importance of our Life Skills Online support; the unexpected silver linings of  the one to one appointment system at The Gateway Centre; great news from Home for Good about finding adopting and fostering families for children in BANES; a change of name for Bath City Pastors; the new essentials service and online shop for the Furniture Project and the enduring sustainability and flexibility of Bath Foodbank.

We couldn’t entirely replicate the chat and connections or the chance to mingle with a cup of tea after the meeting but we were pleased to still hold our annual Church Leaders’ Meeting albeit, like everything at the moment, in a different way. Different, yes, but still a positive opportunity to keep communicating all that is important to Genesis Trust.

Thank you to everyone who could join us and for the searching questions and positive feedback.

“Thank you so much for these amazing updates. So encouraging and inspiring to hear.”

“Great job everyone! Exciting times ahead for our city.”

Read our updated Vision, Missions and Values here.