Our Impact

We make an impact as a church by living out the good news of Jesus Christ and building the Kingdom of God. In our worship, our prayer and our sharing in bread and wine we invite Jesus into our lives to empower us for this task—we say, "Your Kingdom come." By working for Social Justice, building community, acts of loving service, and giving and recieving hospitality the Kingdom of God comes near—we say, "Your will be done." Through a thoroughly inclusive welcome and by serving the needs of our parish we try to notice what God is doing and join in—that it may be, "In earth as in heaven."

Below you'll find some of the ways we try to have an impact in our parish. Other things that happen here can be found on our Venue Activities page.

If you want to have an impact in Prestwood, please support our work. You can give regularly through the Parish Giving Scheme or make a one-off secure donation right now.

If there's something you'd like to see that isn't here and want to help make it happen, let us know.

Our Distribution Centre for the Chiltern Foodbank operates both a delivery system and a face-to-face weekly drop in session and runs from the Annexe at Holy Trinity, Prestwood. We process Foodbank vouchers and supply Food boxes to clients within the local area. Boxes provide 3 days’ worth of food to create balanced meals for clients. The boxes are packed to accommodate individuals and families: single boxes, couples boxes, single parent boxes and family boxes. The centre is run by a team of staff and volunteers, who run the centre, monitor the incoming vouchers and deliver the food boxes.

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Holy Trinity, Prestwood has partnered with Acts 435 to meet the meet the practical everyday needs of individuals and families in our parish.

Acts 435 is about giving to people directly, to help them bridge the gap when they are facing a financial crisis. It is a giving website that allows people to give money directly to others, and 100% of what is donated via Acts 435 goes directly to those in need.

When so many people need so much help, giving to charities and good causes can sometimes feel overwhelming and hard. Acts 435 puts people who want to help in touch with people who are in need, through a network of churches and local charities. Acts 435 enables virtual, online giving for specific needs.

Needs and giving are confidential, and no personal information is shared publicly.

If you are someone in need or know someone in need please email the Rector, who will treat your email as confidential.

If you would like to support someone local who is in need, please search the Acts 435 website or email the Rector, who will give you details of current needs.

A weekly drop-in group for expectant and new parents and their babies aged 0-1 years. This group is run by a team of volunteers each Monday morning in our Annexe here at Holy Trinity, Prestwood.

The Toy Library at Holy Trinity, Prestwood is a free resource for the local community. Run by a team of volunteers, it is open weekly in the Annexe and is a peer-to-peer lending service, providing a wide range of toys, games and resources that can be borrowed on a casual basis.

Our Toddler Thursday drop-in group for children aged 0-5 and their carers meets each Thursday morning in Church. A fun morning of toys, crafts, singing, snack time and our toddler prayer.

We welcome students from the Chiltern Way Academy to our site for a variety of volunteering opportunities. Students have completed Duke of Edinburgh volunteer hours in the Churchyard, have built a fence around our woodland area, volunteered at our Toddler Thursday group, and run a monthly pop-up café in our Church Hall. This is a valued partnership for both us and CWA and we look forward to engaging in more projects together in the future.

Holy Trinity, Prestwood is a partner church with the national charity Transforming Lives for Good (TLG). We run a Make Lunch Club weekly during each school holiday. Liaising with Prestwood Village Schools, we invite local families to the Church Hall and Annexe for crafts, activities and a hot, nutritious, freshly cooked two-course meal. The scale of holiday hunger in the UK is huge, with over 1.5 million children entitled to Free School Meals in term-time. TLG Make Lunch enables, equips and supports churches to provide free, hot and healthy meals to children and their families during the school holidays. If you are interested in volunteering on our Make Lunch team, there are many varied roles, so please email Frances (families@htprestwood.org.uk) for more information.

We are part of the Welcome Network, supporting refugees in our community. Christians are called to love and welcome the stranger, whatever their cultural background. Every church has the privilege and opportunity to welcome and care for refugees and asylum seekers in some way. The Welcome Network identifies churches around the UK who are committed to welcoming refugees. This means that as refugees and asylum seekers move around the UK, they can easily find a church to welcome them into the community. There are lots of ways we can support refugees. Check out No Refugee Alone - Welcome Churches (https://welcomechurches.org/) for more information. Speak to the Rector or contact the office to get involved.

Holy Trinity has been a champion of African Village Support since 2017, when the charity was chosen for our annual Lent Appeal.

AVS Pic1AVS has been working in Muyembe, Eastern Uganda since 2003. It operates out of a purpose built community centre and provides education, training and recreation for women’s groups; literacy development; and study opportunities in music, dance and drama. Support includes building pit latrines, water tanks, a bore hole for its hostel for girls, mosquito nets, support for HIV/Aids victims, partnership with the Red Cross, and provision of ‘mama bags’ for pregnant mothers. It seeks ‘livelihood’ projects so individuals and villages can be self supporting and grow their local economy.

Since 2017 Holy Trinity members have raised over £21,000 (including Gift Aid). One of the most exciting projects supported was the installation of water pumps which provided vital irrigation for the area’s dependence on subsistence farming.

In addition to financial donations from church members, we have provided Mama Bag materials. Working with midwives and doctors from the local Health Centre, AVS distributes more than 60 bags to pregnant mothers every month. Mama Bags provide basic items to help with hygiene during the birth and after care for newborns and their mothers. The contents of the bags are selected to encourage women to visit antenatal classes at the clinic where they receive family planning advice, information about HIV and childbirth as well as learning the importance of immunisation. Many members of our church family have skillfully knitted and made clothing for babies, as can be seen in this photo.

We have a team on Kiva, and you can see the amazing amount of money we've loaed below! Join our team today. More than 1.7 billion people around the world are unbanked and can’t access the financial services they need. Kiva is an international nonprofit, founded in 2005 in San Francisco, with a mission to expand financial access to help underserved communities thrive.

They do this by crowdfunding loans and unlocking capital for the underserved, improving the quality and cost of financial services, and addressing the underlying barriers to financial access around the world. Through Kiva's work, students can pay for tuition, women can start businesses, farmers are able to invest in equipment and families can afford needed emergency care.

By lending as little as $25 on Kiva, you can be part of the solution and make a real difference in someone’s life. 100% of every dollar you lend on Kiva goes to funding loans. Join our team today.

Holy Trinity, Prestwood has a large and well-loved churchyard. It is the final resting place for many villagers, and their friends and relatives spend time rememebring them and tending their graves. Due to the amazing care over the years of our dedicated team of volunteers, with careful regular mowing and good management, our churchyard is now also an important and valuable example of an increasingly rare grassland site. In fact, with 23 different varieties of waxcap mushrooms, we are designated as an internationally important waxcap grassland. Many thanks to our dedicated volunteers who help to manage the churchyard. We need more of you! If you would like to volunteer some time all equipment and training is provided. Please speak to the Rector.

Prestwood Community Fridge was set up after discussions with the church and community groups and the Rector is a founding director, alongside others from the community. “THANK YOU for supplying much needed food to the community. Nobody should ever go hungry. Keep up the good work!” is just one of the comments received celebrating the work of the Community Fridge.

If you haven’t yet visited the Community Fridge, then you don’t know what you’re missing. Every week there’s lovely fresh fruit and veg, fresh bakery items and lots in the fridge and freezer.

It’s all made possible by an amazing team of volunteers who collect and transport the food, run the Fridge premises, and provide this amazing resource for the people of Prestwood.

The Fridge is a well-loved resource for many. As one satisfied person says, “All the volunteers do an amazing job, well done to all involved. It's astounding how much food would be wasted if it wasn't for these great people. I like to pop in on Saturdays to get some fancy bread and cakes for lunch. You never know what will be there which is part of the fun!”

Look for Prestwood Community Fridge on Facebook to follow everything that’s happening. We’d love you to join our volunteer family—which you can do online or in the shop. But most importantly, come and visit, before everything is gone!

The Community Fridge is right next to Crossroads Garage and open from 9.00am—11.30am on Saturday mornings and 9.30am—11.00am on Wednesday mornings.