01 Apr 2025

A look at what’s been going on at Church on the Street in March:

Pastors Visit From Dominican Republic

A year ago, newly ordained pastors, Graham and Kathryn Dunwell, moved with their family to the Caribbean, to set up Church on the Street in the Dominican Republic. In March they came to our Sunday Service in Burnley to talk to us about their calling to serve God, and the work they are doing with impoverished and vulnerable children.

Telling us about their early lives, the struggles and brokenness of their own childhoods, they gave amazing testimony to the power of God to make use of whatever we have when we come to him. All of us have a calling, they said, and no one’s calling is greater or lesser than anyone else’s, we just need to put aside the distractions of the world, and spend time in the Word of God, to know what it is.

Money collected at the service was donated to Graham and Kathryn’s church as part of our ongoing commitment to support their work.

Follow Church on the Street in The Dominican Republic

“Walk In My Shoes” Book Launch

Bishop Mick’s new book: Walk In My Shoes: Stories of Miraculous Transformation, was launched this month at separate events in London and Burnley. The book tells the remarkable stories of people Mick has met on his faith journey from drug dealer to Christian minister.

At the London event, Mick was interviewed about the book by BBC UK News Editor, Ed Thomas. In Burnley, it was our own Pastor Emma asking the questions, as she interviewed both Mick and several of the people whose stories appear in the book.

Hearing first hand some of the life-changing stories from “Walk In My Shoes,” was an emotional and powerful experience. People shared in a very honest way, how in their darkest times, and when their suffering seemed almost impossible to bear, the light of God’s love had shone through.

Order “Walk In My Shoes” on Amazon

Sunday Dinners Get a Second Helping

When we started to provide free hot Sunday dinners at our church in Burnley last October, our plan was that this would be for the winter. Now that Spring is here, we have decided to continue serving Sunday dinners as we head into summer. Bishop Mick said,

“We are seeing people who would not normally use the support services in our church, turning up to be fed on a Sunday, families and couples with children. Having identified a real need, we feel it is important that we should continue.”

Free Sunday Dinner
Every Sunday, 4.00pm
Bethesda Church, Bethesda St
Burnley BB11 1PR (behind M&S)

New Genesis Group in Manchester

The Genesis Group is a cyclical 8-week program developed by Church on the Street to provide support for people in active addiction or the early stages of recovery. We have been running The Genesis Group in Burnley and Blackburn for sometime, and we are now delighted to announce that a new group will start in Manchester in April.

The Manchester Genesis Group will be run by Barnabus, a Christian Homeless Charity who we partnered with and trained as group facilitators. Our experience shows us that the Genesis Group fulfils an important need providing a space for people in addiction to contemplate change, and helping them move forward to the next stage of their recovery.

To find out more about The Genesis Group in Manchester, please contact Barnabus:
barnabus.org/contact

“Boy Crisis” Documentary Wins Film Award

Bishop Mick will be appearing in a new documentary to be released later this year: Warren Farrell Interrupted: The Boy Crisis.

The film, by Hannah Gal, this month won the Doug Austin Humanitarian Award at the Idyllwild International Festival in California.

Warren Farrell, PhD, is author of the book, The Boy Crisis: Why Our Boys Are Struggling and What We Can Do, and the documentary looks at the challenges he has faced advocating for boys and men. Bishop Mick said,

“The film is about father figures and the lack of them, what it means to be a man in the 21st Century, and asks why we see so much male suicide, and so many men in prison and addiction. The film also addresses the problem that many men don’t have positive male role models.”

Our Wound Care Clinic: A Case Study

One of our church members, Heather (not her real name), was receiving wound care at the weekly NHS clinic run in the treatment room of our church, when it was found that an open wound in her leg had severely deteriorated. This required emergency treatment, and so one of our pastors immediately drove her to A&E.

Heather is homeless and has struggled with addiction for many years, beginning in childhood. She suffers from severe paranoia, and feared that others could smell a necrotic odour coming from her leg. For this reason she needed constant reassurance not to become agitated while waiting for 2.5 hours in a crowded A&E waiting room.

To ensure that Heather remained there, we also needed to collect her prescribed medication and give her measured amounts of alcohol to alleviate severe withdrawal symptoms. Our primary goal was to get her admitted to receive the urgent care she needed, as there was a real danger she might lose the leg.

Given the seriousness of Heather’s situation, we took the opportunity to talk to her about entering recovery and starting to turn her life around. She acknowledged that her intravenous drug use now needed to end. Unfortunately, after encountering other members of the addicted community in the hospital, she used again, and was subsequently discharged without a treatment plan.

At this point, Church on the Street coordinated a multi-disciplinary team meeting with other agencies to discuss how best to address Heather’s complex needs. Given her vulnerability, it was decided that one of our pastors would drive her to a hospital in another location, where she could receive the urgent care she needed, and would be less likely to relapse.

A few days later, Heather was transferred to another hospital to undergo surgery on her leg. We are now working with the substance misuse service, Inspire, to find a pathway for Heather to enter detox and begin rehabilitation. We hope that with the right support in place, Heather can now break free from the cycle of addiction and start to rebuild her life.

Our award winning treatment room, which is self funded, has been nominated again this year for the NHS Star Award for Engagement and Partnership.

BBC Interview Mick About Welfare Cuts

In the Spring Statement the UK government announced further cuts to welfare. BBC Politics Live came to Burnley to hear what people thought about it, and spoke to Bishop Mick:

“The only notion I can completely understand, which is quite insane, is it all fits and makes sense if you think the government hates working class people…and I hope that’s not true, but that’s what it looks like.”

Watch video clip on Facebook

Mick also wrote an article for LBC about the impact of the cuts:

“I see fathers weeping because they have no food to give their children that week, mothers broken with the stress of fighting to provide basic necessities for their families in a system that punishes them for existing with needs, and children who say to me: ‘Don’t be silly, we don’t eat at home!’. Most of all, I see the stark link between poverty and disability.”

Read full LBC article

Students Give Free Men’s Haircuts

Students on the Barbering Course at Nelson & Colne College have been coming into our church to give free men’s haircuts. This was their second visit this year, and they will be returning in April.