Reverend Amy Stott is not your typical minister. She is young and has had a baptism of fire as vicar of St Luke’s Canning Town.

She was officially appointed in April 2021, but she had already been serving the community unofficially since February 2020 – five weeks before lockdown!

She’s not what some might consider traditional. She prefers to be called by her first name for instance.

Amy grew up in a religious family, her father is a minister, and she has an extraordinarily strong faith. She defines her role as providing pastoral care for people in the community.

She is originally from Dundee in Scotland and moved to Canning Town in 2011 where she was initially an intern and then a youth worker at St Luke’s in Ruscoe Road.

Amy loves Canning Town and the community. Eight years ago, as her purpose in life became clearer, she started the process to become a minister and she was ordained four years ago.

This presented her with some unusual challenges, as it is the first church she is responsible for, and the parishioners were in lockdown. It required some out of the box thinking. She has used technology and social media to ensure the church continues to bring people together.

To keep the young attendees of the Sunday school engaged the church would deliver packs that the whole family could do together. Canning Town is a community of communities as Amy sees it and she wants people from those various communities to find a home in the Church.

The theme of partnership runs through her vision of how her church can support the community. The church was busy at the start of Covid working with other organisations organising foodbanks and delivering free school meals. As concerns about Covid are reduced, Amy is focused on building connections in the community. This serves two purposes:

To raise awareness of the location of the church. They share a space with St Luke’s school. Although the church has been using the space for 20 years the church is still associated with the old building in Rogers Road.

To provide outreach to the local community that meets their needs. For example, for the last few weeks the church has organised a social event called Together Thursdays where local people meet in the lounge of Ruscoe Road, Sheltered Accommodation for Tea and Cake between 12 – 2.

This has proven to be highly successful in bringing the local community together in a social setting. It is staffed by Amy and several volunteers from the church.

Amy is currently exploring other ways of reaching out to the community.

Contact: Revd Amy Stott, Ruscoe Road, Canning Town, London, E16 1JB

Tel: 020 7476 9729, Mobile: 07891374713

Email: rev.amystott@gmail.com

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