Café
All Saints Listening Service
Do you need to talk to someone?
Listening service at All Saints. Normally Monday-Saturday 11am-12.15pm, please enquire at the welcome desk for other times. Our listeners wear a badge identifying themselves as listeners.
The service was started in 2003 to offer a welcome and a listening ear to some of the many people who come into Kingston for shopping and leisure. Before the cafe opened in 2015 we had an urn and a jar of instant coffee/box of tea bags on a table! We see our work as an important part of All Saints’ service to the wider community, as we are aware that some of the people who visit our beautiful church may experience loneliness, isolation and many other problems and we offer them kindness and concern without judgment not readily available in commercial outlets.
There is a 20 strong team of volunteers who have been interviewed, selected and trained in listening skills. In any given year we would engage with several hundred people, so since our beginning over 20 years ago we have welcomed thousands. Someone is on duty in the cafe from Monday to Saturday 11am to 12.15pm and occasionally at other times. We wear a lanyard saying “listener” so people recognise us and the cafe staff if asked can point us out. It really does help to talk – and we’re here to listen.
