Patrick Comerford
I spent a few hours earlier this week with other clergy in the Milton Keynes Deanery area as guests of the Chinese Overseas Christian Mission in Fishermead. But before that visit, I also visited some of the other faith communities in Fishermead, including Trinity Church, and walked through the housing and shopping areas.
Fishermead is an interesting area only a 10-minute walk from the centre of Milton Keynes. The first houses were built there in 1973, and at one time Fishermead was known as one of the most notorious estates in Milton Keynes.
In the past, Fishermead suffered from high volumes of deprivation, multiple occupancy housing and street crime. Today, the area is home to one the most diverse and vibrant communities in the city. The three-storey townhouses and blocks of flats house about 1,400 households and people from many parts of the world.
I was a guest of the Chinese Overseas Christian Mission (COCM) at lunch in its headquarters at Padstow Avenue, along with other clergy in the Milton Keynes Deanery area.
Fishermead is named after a field called Fishers Mead, and the fishing theme is continued in the street naming. All the streets are named after Cornish fishing villages and terminology, such as Penryn Avenue, Towan Avenue, Padstow Avenue, Pencarrow Place, Porthleven Place and Kernow Crescent.
The original housing was grouped around squares. A particularly striking area is Kernow Crescent which was built in 1981 and which encloses the local park. The area is has grid system like many other parts of Milton Keynes, with a central boulevard that has the services running off it.
The local facilities in Fishermead include the Trinity Centre, which is both a church and a community centre, a doctor’s surgery, a pharmacy, a Co-op shop and a variety of ethnic shops, including Sri Lankan and Chinese shops.
The estate has two schools, Jubilee Wood Primary School and the Willows School, both on Fishermead Boulevard. The Fishermead Citizens Alliance was formed to create a new broad-based alliance of faith, education and other community organisations to tackle the social issues on the estate.
Local faith groups, organisations and facilities include Trinity Church, Fishermead Mosque, Frank Howe Court, a retirement living scheme on Penryn Avenue, Pebbles Nursery, the Salvation Army, the Samaritans and the Seventh Day Adventist Church, as well as the Chinese Overseas Christian Mission. In addition, Connection Support in Fishermead offers emergency accommodation and 24-hour support to people who are sleeping rough in Milton Keynes.
Trinity Church, Fishermead, which serves the Fishermead, Oldbrook and Eaglestone areas, is an ecumenical partnership involving the Church of England, the Methodist Church, the Baptist Church and the United Reformed Church, and is part of the Woughton Ecumenical Partnership.
The church describes itself as a family-friendly, multicultural and welcoming church. Fishermead Community Café at the Trinity Centre is open every Thursday (10:30 am to 12:30 pm) and Friday (10:30 am to 3pm).
The Revd Ian Herbert is the Rector of Woughton Ecumenical Partnership, a partnership of five ecumenical churches south of central Milton Keynes: Christ the Vine, Coffee Hall; Saint Mary’s, Woughton-on-the-Green; Saint Thomas’s Church, Simpson, Trinity Church, Fishermead; and Holy Trinity Church, Woolstone.
The Revd Chris Bell chairs Trinity Church Council and leads worship on the Third Sundays in the month; the Revd Didier Jaquet is the minister on the first and fourth Sundays. Sunday services are at 10 am in the Trinity Centre on the Boulevard in Fishermead, with Holy Communion on the first and third Sundays.
The Sunday congregation numbers at Trinity Church are usually between 20 and 30, with an age range from under one to over 80.
The Fishermead Trinity Centre has three large halls with wooden floors, one large meeting room with projector and Wi-Fi facilities, a kitchen and a secure gated courtyard.
The other faith communities in the area include the Islamic Centre Milton Keynes on Fishermead Boulevard, close to the Co-op shop and Trinity Church.
The mosque in Fishermead dates from 2004, when some Indian and Sri Lankan Muslims in Milton Keynes decided to set up an Islamic centre to meet the needs of the diverse mix of Muslim communities in central Milton Keynes, including people of Indian, Sri Lankan, Bengali, Pakistani, Somali and Arab origin.
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