The Ship Centre is a friendly and welcoming space for everyone where we share the love of Jesus in practical and prayerful ways. People from the community and the church come along for a cuppa, a meal or a snack, whether they have money to pay or not.

The team also helps connect people with services to meet practical needs, as well as praying with and befriending people with all sorts of needs. The Ship Centre is a ministry of Rainham Parish Church (St. Helen’s and St. Giles’).

History

The Ship was first was opened by the then Bishop of Barking, the Rt. Revd. Roger Sainsbury on June 8th 1995 as a tea shop with a view to extending the church into the community of Rainham. It was the brainchild of the Revd. Tom Lynds, and a number of others, to purchase the old Goodwin’s Hairdressers shop for this purpose. Grants and private donations from church members enables the work to go ahead with most of the work being tackled by men from the church itself.

At the start of 2015 we determined it was time to seek a new vision for The Ship Centre. After lots of prayer to seek God’s will and discern how we could best serve the community of Rainham, as with all our ministries, we reopened in May 2015 after renovations, with a renewed vision of being place where all people can come to experience the love of Jesus in prayerful and practical ways.

We continue to be blessed with generous donations – both financial donations and practical donations of food and goods we can sell in our small charity shop. All of this goes to help our team serve the community.