Wrexham: Celebrating community

Captains Claire and Deryk Durrant explain how the corps community is growing through changes and challenges.

Considering everyone

Our congregation is varied. Alongside those who have been faithful Salvationists for a long while, we’re blessed with people who are new to faith or new to the Army. With active musical sections, we aim to strike a balance in worship, trying to make sure that everyone is catered for and feels represented. Not everyone can attend on Sundays, but we want them to know that they are still a valued part of our church.

Evolving mission

Wrexham was awarded city status in 2022, which brings changes and challenges for us as a church.

The corps has some potentially big decisions to make relating to location and whether we are doing mission effectively in the community. We’re asking how we should integrate and share life with people from various cultures, some of whom are part of our worshipping fellowship. We recognise the uniqueness they bring, provided they’re not expected to conform to the way we’ve been doing things.

Tŷ Dewr, a Lifehouse for veterans, is near the corps, as is HMP Berwyn, whose prison chaplain worships with us. HMP Berwyn is the largest prison in the UK, housing around 2,000 inmates. The new government’s early release programme has impacted us, and if those released don’t manage to keep the terms of their release, and are recalled to prison, that will create further impact.

As a newly celebrated city, inevitably there will be new building programmes and changes in the community. The city council has announced plans for a huge new social housing project. Currently there is a sheltered housing complex next door to our hall and many of the residents attend our programme. The new development will see them relocated at a time when they want to be settled. This has a knock-on effect on their social wellbeing, with worries about how they will keep in contact with friends, attend activities and get to the hall on Sundays. We’ll be impacted by that as we continue to try to meet their needs.

Integration in action

We are blessed to have a songster brigade, a band, a singing company, a young people’s band and brass learners’ group with children of all ages. Our corps is good at intergenerational worship, and the young people always participate. They’re absolutely brilliant – we love them!

We’re in the process of launching our Christmas toy appeal, made possible by our community programme manager and fabulous volunteers. It’s a great system and the public are always very generous.

We’ve just started working with a primary school that has children from 19 nationalities. Some of the children can’t read or don’t have access to books, and English is often not their first or even second language. This could lead to a whole array of possibilities for us, and we’re excited to see how it will develop.

Wales 150

We’re looking forward to the last few celebration events. Our cynefin includes Coedpoeth, Mold, Rhosllanerchrugog, Connah’s Quay, Newtown and Rhyl Corps. We supported specific Dyma Gariad events at both Rhos and Coedpoeth, and corps folks went up to events at Connah’s Quay. The children learnt ‘Dyma Gariad’ and we were at the divisional event in Builth Wells where our young people participated.

Our young brass players were thrilled to play with the International Staff Band at Together 2024 – see a photo of them on page 9! It was massive for them, and they put in a lot of time and hard work. They were brilliant in every way – as they always are, week in and week out.

We look forward to the carol service at St Asaph Cathedral. We’ve also been asked to do some traditional carols at the Translators’ Tearoom of the cathedral the week after.

We thank God for all he’s done in Wales in the past 150 years, and we look forward to seeing what he’ll do in the future.

Pray for us in relation to the changes we face and the challenges to us being a relevant presence. What is certain, though, is that through it all we can confidently say: ‘God is good!’