Each winter we are involved with supporting the Bristol Churches Winter Night Shelter through hospitality and friendship. During the month of May we are involved in a Saturday soup run with our sister church, St Paul’s, where we serve soup and sandwiches to homeless people and Big Issue sellers. Also with our sister church various people volunteer at the Make Lunch project at St Luke’s, Barton Hill, where children can get hot meals and enjoy activities during school holidays.

Our long-established Charity of the Month programme means we support (with prayer, 10% of the month’s giving and often, parishioner support) a diverse list of local, national and international charities.  Nominated charities have ranged from Night Stop to Musicians Without Borders. We also have an emergency fund for one-off donations for humanitarian crises.

As a congregation we are keen supporters of the work of Christian Aid and have an annual simple lunch and a joint flea market with our sister church, St Paul’s, to raise funds. Many members of the congregation contribute to Chernobyl Children’s Lifeline, which supports children and their families in Belarus and the Ukraine affected by the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

The wording of the centre panel reads “To the glory of God and in memory of the men from this parish who fell in the Great War 1914-1919”:  E M Reeves, W D Turner, A C Trowbridge, S H Waxley, V L Palmer, O J G Edmonds, F Q Deakin, E L Moore, J A J Stodgell, C A Brown, H T Dore, H R Reeves, R G Gibbs, C O Moore, A H Gentle, F G Morgan, C G Pickard, W E Milliner, C C R Atkinson, E J Grigg, H G Phippen, S V Watton, N M H Atkinson, S G Bigwood, F W Fitzgibbon, H R Lambert, R J C Nurse, E A Edge, F S Barber, J T Inman, A L Chivers, L C Pickard, P J Bevin, W W Beer, F H Byrt, A Willis, G S Lovering, J R F Gubbin, H F Moore, H C Tovey, F E Compton, W H Attwood, P D Brown, T W H Hayes, F J Bridle, H N Hore, E B Drake, T J Williams, J W Scott, R O Jones.  The wording of the side panels reads: “1939-45 – Let us also remember those who laid down their lives in the Second World War” and “Their bodies are buried in peace, but their names liveth for evermore”: V W W Beer, R J B Bush, K J Chard, L F Edwards, R C Percival, W H Targett, H Tozer, R E J White, R H Willis, D L Oakes, J Glanville, D E Lewis, P M Smith, J T Peters.  By this installation, we fulfil the promise that the names will live for evermore; we poignantly remind ourselves of the tragedy of all wars, and of modern wars where the local losses of life are quite as high, quite as young, and quite as real.

The Highbury Chapel, a Nonconformist place of worship which was built in 1842, lay vacant in the 1970s; two Anglican congregations from St Saviour’s, Woolcott Park and St Mary’s, Tyndall’s Park came together in the building in 1976. There are two memorial tablets to five martyrs erected by the Nonconformists – one inside the church and one on the exterior wall.  The martyrs were burnt to death during the 1550s in the reign of Queen Mary, on the spot where the chapel was built. They were referred to as ‘five poor men of Bristol’ and ‘who, for conscience sake, were willing to lay down their lives’.

There is also a memorial to Henry Arnold Thomas, a pastor of the Nonconformist church for 47 years, carved by Eric Gill. This was commissioned by the elders of the chapel because of Eric Gill’s connection with the Wills family, who were some of the original trustees of the church. The sculpture is of a Shepherd with three lambs under a canopy, with an inscription beneath also carved by Eric Gill, to the memory of Henry Thomas who was described thus: ‘Great grace was upon him’.