PARCHE Today

As a registered charity, PARCHE has a board of Trustees made up of members of local churches. We employ 2 part-time staff: the Eastbourne Local Co-ordinator, who oversees the local work, leads the training courses, and keeps in touch with the visiting teams and the Office Manager.

Each participating church provides one or more teams, which we train, and allocate to individual homes. At present 5 churches are providing teams.

6 of the local churches and a number of individuals give generously to the work of PARCHE. Because we are a registered charity, gifts can be gift-aided.

We offer a number of resources to assist in this work. A DVD entitled "The Church in Care Homes" shows the work of PARCHE. We have produced a set of three CDs of favourite hymn tunes, a CD of popular choruses and one of carols, for the use of teams without a musician. We have published two books, "50 Services" and "50 Bible Studies" to use in Care Homes. We provide various training courses for teams, outlines of which are posted on this website. To purchase any of these resources, navigate to our Resources page.

Our PARCHE Office Manager

MaryLouHello, this is Mary, known to my friends as Marylou, and I am the Office Manager for PARCHE having started at the beginning of May alongside Myrtle.  I have been an Eastbourne local for the past 9 years and my work history was 15 years as a senior PA within the corporate world before last year taking a step out in Faith as the Lord called me to serve Him through my music within the Churches in the town.  I now make my living mainly as a Church Musician but also as a Piano Teacher; working within the PARCHE office is the latest step in what has been a joyous, if sometimes scary, journey of trust in the Lord. Everyone I have met has been truly welcoming and the role PARCHE plays in the community is such an important one that I feel blessed to be able to use my skills to contribute.


Staff Changes

Chairperson

Hello everyone; My name is Andy Melvin, I have the honour of being the new Chairperson of PARCHE. I am married to Debbie, and we have two grown up children. We have lived in Eastbourne since 2016 but have ties here that date back to the late 1990’s.

I am a Minister working for the Central Sussex United Area of churches which is a Methodist and United Reformed Church partnership. I look after three churches in particular in Uckfield, Buxted & Crowborough. I have a particular interest in helping churches reignite their calling to serve Christ by loving their local community.

I have worked PARCHE as their national coordinator for a couple of years and have served as a Trustee for three years now.

When not working I love spending time with family and friends and walking Kipper the Dog

Local Coordinator

Hello, My name is Debbie Melvin and I’m the Local Coordinator for PARCHE. I am married to Andy who is a Minister in the Methodist Church, we have two grown up children who have both left home now. I am part of the Sovereign Missional Movement in the harbour in Eastbourne. My last role was as one of the Managers at the Eastbourne Christian Resource Centre so you may know my face if you used to visit there. My background has always been in Administration and I am passionate about resourcing people using my admin skills and the knowledge obtained in the Christian Book trade and Christian organisations. I have a vision to stabilise and grow the local work of PARCHE, connecting with teams, churches and homes. I am aware of how difficult the last couple of years have been and the toll it has taken on everyone and so my first task is to encourage and enable teams to return to the homes they previously visited, help with succession planning to keep this vital work going and to help everyone to feel part of the PARCHE family. I am looking forward to meeting you all, praying for you all and am always happy to meet up for a coffee and a chat if you would like!  

For all enquiries email:
info@parche.org.uk

PARCHE Office:
c/o 66 Ocklynge Road Eastbourne BN21 1PY
Tel: 01323 438527

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