A TRAINEE priest from Winchester has swapped the pulpit for her PC to help vulnerable people during lockdown.

Marianne Foster has been coordinating the Mutual Aid Winchester group on Facebook alongside four others.

Mutual Aid Winchester was set up on March 15 as a way to coordinate help for vulnerable people.

Since then more than 3,000 people have signed up to share information, volunteer help, or ask for it if they are in need.

The Facebook group is a community forum for requesting and providing help to those in need and provides a platform for sharing information on how to access essential food, medication, supplies and services.

Ms Foster said: "The Mutual Aid Winchester effort is about the common-sense human value of neighbourliness, which is the disposition to be friendly and helpful to neighbours. This is all about community members looking out for each other. We want to both help contain the spread of the virus and support those most at risk.”

The group is currently working with Hampshire County Council, Winchester City Council, Community First, and with Civil Parish Council which is referring people to them.

Marianne works in safeguarding and is currently studying with the Diocese of Winchester’s School of Mission to be ordained as a priest.

She has been using her expertise in safeguarding and is talking with the council and other agencies to help set up the networks needed to deliver help safely. 

The Right Reverend Debbie Sellin, Bishop of Southampton said: "It fills me with joy to see how our communities are coming together to show love for our neighbours. The last few weeks have brought sorrow and anguish, but I have also witnessed an outpouring of compassion.

"I am amazed, but not surprised, by the huge numbers of people who have come forward to offer help to others at this time, whether through national volunteering schemes, on local community groups, or in everyday acts of kindness.

“It gives me great hope to know that people of all faiths and none are joining together in finding new ways of supporting our communities. I am increasingly confident that, when we have got through the worst of this current crisis, our communities will emerge stronger than ever before.”