24/7 online Church leaders Café launched by International children's charity World Vision and Alpha International provides support during COVID-19 crisis

International children's charity, World Vision have today launched a new online Church leaders café to provide church leaders worldwide with an opportunity to share their experiences during the COVID-19 crisis, support one another and suggest resilience strategies for their local churches.

The calls, which will be hosted on Zoom, have been launched in partnership with Alpha International and during the pilot stages they have already seen many church leaders benefit from having the opportunity to speak with one another.

World Vision UK CEO, Mark Sheard says, "Church leaders are typically the go-to person for the congregation in times of crisis. Most would not have received any training on how to lead through a pandemic such as COVID-19 and so having an opportunity to share experiences, listen and learn from one another is hugely valuable."

The cafe will be open 24 hours a day, Monday- Friday until the end of May and will be hosted by staff from the New Zealand, UK and USA offices of both Alpha and World Vision.

Alpha International Head of Global Marketing, Laura Bradford says, "We are living in unprecedented times and at Alpha we want to support church leaders in any way we can. Currently church leaders are having to wear multiple hats - pastor, producer, social media expert. We wanted to create a safe place to share, learn and support each other in this time of uncertainty. Alpha and World Vision are global organisations which enables us to open the café worldwide 24 hours a day. The café is designed for church leaders to come, share, pray and be blessed."."

Church of Scotland Minister, Reverend Andrea Boyes was one of the first church leaders to pilot the cafe, she says, "I needed a space to chat with others about what their churches are up too. I found that here."

To find out more and to join the conversation go to http://churchleaderscafe.org/