Category Archives: Vocation

Belief, News Releases, Vocation

And yet… a story of ordination

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Stella’s story

Well, it has happened. After a process lasting several years. I was ordained as a deacon at Guildford Cathedral by Rt Rev’d Jo Bailey Wells, Bishop of Dorking, on July 3rd.

This is both the culmination of a long time of discernment (the process of talking , thinking, praying about whether I had been called to be a minister in the Church of England), followed by study (more talking, thinking, praying and some writing too), and the beginning of new phase as I become a curate in the parish. This means a lot more learning, both on study days and on the job – learning to take services, including funerals, preaching more, being involved in pastoral care and the like – as well as doing my admin and communications job. As an Ordained Local Minister I don’t receive an income so need to carry on working.

Those are the bald facts, but behind these everything is slightly less fixed. It often is when we are trying to follow God. The path to this point has been winding, with hints of it many years ago, and if there had been women priests around in those days I might have started the process earlier. Then again, that might have been the wrong stage in my life as I have changed a great deal since then. I was pretty certain that the theology I heard preached in the churches I frequented then had to be true and it was only my lack of faith and discipline that caused me to doubt. Even as I delved deeper into faith I thought that I could somehow know the truth about God, could squeeze God into a box and then all I had to do was obey.

As you have probably guessed, it didn’t work out that way, and God somehow wouldn’t fit into a box or even a list of beliefs that I could tick off. The more I grasped at God and thought I had it sorted, the more God slipped through my fingers.

And yet. There is always an ‘and yet’. God is the ‘and yet’, the presence who can’t be grasped but is somehow here, around us, sustaining us, shining light through the cracks in our lives, piercing the darkness. Over the past few years I have become more at ease with the idea that there will not be clear answers on this side of death at least, but that this is OK.

I wish, in many ways, I could give you clear answers, ones you could tick off. I know how long I sought them. But if I gave you those answers you would probably find 100 reasons why they didn’t work for you, or maybe you’d tie yourselves in knots trying to accept them in the way you think you should, regardless of whether that was what I meant. I’ve been there.

I am more content these days to know that I won’t know everything, that I can’t define God. God continues to be more than the answers, more than a set of doctrines, more than orthodoxy. God continues to be, well, God, the source of being and of love, lifegiving and creative, extraordinary but rooted in the ordinary, rooted in community, in our relationships with each other.

One of my favourite stories from the New Testament is that of the two disciples who, after the death of their master, Jesus, were walking to Emmaus (Luke 24:13–32) and hadn’t heard about the resurrection of that same master. Jesus, the risen Christ – the Messiah – walked with them and explained what was said about the Messiah in the Hebrew Scriptures (what we now call the Old Testament) and how he would suffer and then ‘enter into his glory’. They still didn’t know that he was talking about himself and it wasn’t until he was with them for a meal and took the bread and broke it that they recognised him. Then, just as they would have asked him a stack of questions, he disappeared.

How frustrating, and yet… And yet they knew him deep within, for they said that their hearts burned within them as they walked and talked with him. They knew on a deep visceral level and they recognised him in a simple, shared act of a meal together. After that meal, their lives could never be the same again.

God for me is found in mystery but is also found rooted in the everyday, in community, in simple, embodied acts, in what we do together as a church. That is something we all work out together and I look forward to doing so with you more and more.

Stella Wiseman

Pictured top: Stella (centre), family, friends and Bishop Jo (far right).

Vocation

Help Needed

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How you can be involved

There are lots of roles that you can help with at church – please do get involved. Email revd.lesley@badshotleaandhale.org to find out more:

Help making online services

Role description: To make whole video services or parts of video services as agreed

Person description: Good computer skills and access to a relatively powerful computer and good internet connection

Number of hours: depends on agreement

Reports to: Alan

System Support

Role description: The parish currently runs on a variety of Google sheets, with associated Javascript macros. There is an opportunity to support these, or to help move them to Office 365 Power Automate

Person description: Good Computer skills with some experience of programming

Number of hours: Work expands to fill the time available!  If it is ongoing support there is perhaps an hour a week, but this can come in lumps as Google have a habit of changing things without telling us and they then need to be made to work in the new regime.

Reports to: Alan

GDPR Lead

Role description: Understand the requirements of Data Protection and ensure we are compliant

Person description: Good at understanding regulations and applying them

Number of hours: Very few, giving advice when needed

Reports to: Alan

Questioning Faith Mentors

Role description: When we run QF courses for people new to Christianity it would be good to have more established people from the congregation to support the new people.

Person description: Willingness to talk openly about their own faith

Number of hours: Courses tend to be about 6-8 weeks of 1½ hours, run on an ad hoc basis

Reports to: Alan

School Mentors

Role description: We have recently taken on the running of a mentoring scheme for young people in Heath End School.  We haven’t yet found out if we are welcome back in in the current circumstances, but there will come a time when we do. We listen and talk to a young person for an hour a week during term time and there is a termly meeting of mentors.  Commitment is for a term at a time, although initial training is more substantial (we haven’t done any yet so I don’t know exactly).

Person description: A non-judgmental attitude and love for teenagers

Hours: 3 hours per week term time

Reports to: Alan

Prayer Co-ordinator

Role description: Take responsibility for prayer requests and keep the database up to date.

Person description: Pastoral and able to keep confidences

Hours: Ad-hoc, no more than 1 per week

Reports to: Lesley

Social Media Lead

Role description: Running our Instagram account and Twitter account

Person description: Understands social media and contemporary online culture.

Hours: 30 mins per day

Reports to: Stella

Social Media Team Member

Role description: Sharing, liking and commenting on our social media posts

Person description: Just needs to be on a social media platform

Hours: virtually nil

Reports to: Stella

Magazine editor

Role description: Putting together the parish magazine each month, asking for contributions, laying out the pages.

Person description: Computer literate with an eye for laying out the magazine and an understanding of what the readers will want in their magazine

Hours: 16 per month

Reports to: Stella

Magazine delivery coordination

Role description: Coordinating a team of people to deliver the magazines. Posting some of the magazines to those who live outside the parish

Person description: Good at organisation and spreadsheets, good at leading a team

Hours: 4 per month

Reports to: Stella

Notice Board Officer

Role description: Collect items to put on the boards and pin them up once a week

Person description: Able to collect the posters etc and get round the three churches, a good eye to ensure the boards look attractive

Hours: 2 hours per week

Reports to: Stella 

Youth leaders

Role description: We would like to reinvigorate our youth ministry and we will need a team of people who would like to work with young people.

Person description: Able to work with young people in a group setting

Hours: 4 hours per week

Reports to: Lesley

Schools Liaison Officer

Role description: Work with the schools on school services in churches, joint projects, and work in the schools

Person description: Good at partnership working, creative ideas, familiar with the school environment

Hours: 3 hours per week term time

Reports to: Lesley

Open the Book Leader

Role description: Set up a new team of people to go into the schools and offer Open The Book assemblies at the schools that we don’t currently reach

Person description: Good with children and able to coordinate a team

Hours: 4 hours per week term time

Reports to: Lesley

Pastoral Support

Role description: Calling people to check they are ok, visiting when that is allowed

Person description: Empathetic, non-judgemental, good at listening, loves people

Hours: Depends on agreement

Reports to: Lesley

Vergers for Occasional Offices

Role description: Available occasionally during the day and on Saturdays to help at Funerals and Weddings – able to work the CD player and put out the microphones and welcome people

Person description: Good with technology and welcoming

Hours: Ad hoc – you will be part of a team of people called upon occasionally

Reports to: Lesley

Church roles

Cleaning at each of the churches

Role description: Clean the church and other rooms

Person description: Good at cleaning

Hours: 1.5 hours per week per church and 2 hours per week at St George’s

Reports to: Warden

On Call Key Holders for St John’s and for St George’s

Role description: Holds keys to the church and is able to open up the church at short notice

Person description: Able to be contacted at short notice during the day or evening

Hours: very infrequent occurrence

Reports to: Warden 

Eco-Church representative at each of the churches

Role description: Four churches are Eco-churches, a national initiative that uses an online questionnaire to assess churches. This person needs to fill in the online data, recommend policies to the PCC and promote eco work in congregation

Person description: Knowledgeable and passionate about environmental issues and computer literate

Hours: Depends on agreement

Reports to: Lesley

Finance Project representative at each of the churches

Role description: Each church needs to contribute£46,000 – £50,000 to make ends meet. In each church building there is a target board. We need someone to keep on top of this, update board and communicate this to the congregation. This can be done by liaising with the Treasurer, the Stewardship Officer and Stella.

Person description: Good at numbers and explaining them

Hours: 3 per month

Reports to: Lesley

St John’s Church

Intercessors

Role description: Prepare prayers for the Sunday Service and pray them during the service

Person description: Able to lead prayers

Hours: 1 per month

Reports to: Warden

Servers

Role description: Prepare everything for communion and assist the priest during the service

Person description: Willing to help during the service

Hours: 1 per month

Reports to: Warden

Opening and closing the church

Role description: Opens and closes the church on a rota

Person description: Able to get to the church and open or close it

Hours: depends on how often they are on the rota

Reports to: Warden

Coffee lead

Role description: Make sure there are people to serve coffee each week and that we have the right supplies

Person description: Friendly and welcoming and able to fill in an online spreadsheet

Hours: Very few – the rota should run without too much intervention

Reports to: Warden

Grounds officer at St John’s

Role description: Able to organise teams to help occasionally. At each of the churches we do have great people who are already doing gardening, but there are sometimes additional maintenance works that needs a team

Person description: Enjoys gardening and grounds maintenance

Hours: Depends on agreement

Reports to: Warden

St George’s Church

Welcomers

Role description: Put out chairs and welcome people as they arrive.

Person description: Fit and able to move chairs, friendly and welcoming

Hours: 2 per month

Reports to: Warden

Mowers

Role description: Mow the lawn at St George’s from the spring

Person description: Able to use the electric mower

Hours: 3 per month

Reports to: Bill

Intercessors

Role description: Prepare prayers for the Sunday Service and pray them during the service

Person description: Able to lead prayers

Hours: 1 per month

Reports to: Warden

Servers

Role description: Prepare everything for communion and assist the priest during the service

Person description: Willing to help during the service

Hours: 1 per month

Reports to: Warden

St Mark’s Church

Deputy Churchwarden

Role description: Fill in when churchwarden is away and share in the responsibilities of the churchwarden

Person description: Leadership skills

Hours: Depends on agreement

Reports to: Warden

Rota coordinator

Role description: Ensure there is someone to be the Host at each service and encourage new people to pick up jobs to do in the service

Person description: Someone who gets to know people in the congregation

Hours: Very few – the rota runs really without any help

Reports to: Warden

Maintenance officer at St Mark’s

Role description: Repair things that can be repaired and call in contractors when necessary. Check fabric monthly.

Person description: Good at DIY. Ideally it would be good to have electrician, construction or plumbing experience

Hours: 2 hours per week

Reports to: Warden

Vocation

Shh! It could be a vocation…

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In which a member of the parish fesses up…

There is something I have been keeping quiet about over the past couple of years – my vocation. Shh! Don’t say that too loud. Someone might hear.

It has always seemed like a big word, a big deal, something other people had. I was willing to accept that we all have the vocation to be the person we were born to be and to be that in the fullest possible way. Actually, that is a pretty big deal, especially as so much can get in the way of that vocation. But over the past few years I have had a growing sense that part of following that vocation, part of living my life to the fullest, could mean being ordained into the church.

No. Not me. That was something that vicars did and vicars knew the answers and could explain the Trinity and always believed in God, and never swore. I didn’t know the answers, wasn’t sure that it mattered that the Trinity is inexplicable (in my opinion – see, I don’t know), and had days when I wasn’t sure whether God was just something made up to make us feel better or, far too often, feel worse. Though obviously I never swore….(just ask my colleagues).

And yet… I kept wondering and I kept being encouraged in this wondering by Alan and Lesley who seemed to think that I might be suitable vicar material (and vicars obviously know the answers so they must have had a point…). And before I knew it, somehow I was being referred to the Diocesan Director or Ordinands for the Diocese of Guildford, a delightful and perceptive man called Rev’d Canon William Challis who shared my sort of sense of humour. So began a series of meetings in which we discussed faith, the church (not necessarily the same thing) and laughed a fair bit. Meanwhile we were both doing some discerning.

I assumed that William would discern that I was not suitable material and we’d agree that this was not part of my vocation and I’d say a sad farewell, glad I had kept quiet about it as how embarrassing would that be if people knew I didn’t fit the criteria, or that I had even assumed I might have done?!

But we kept on, looking at those criteria for selection and discussing subjects such as faith, mission, leadership, spirituality, vocation. It was challenging but fascinating. References were sought and given, William came to visit the family, and it seemed that he thought I was suitable after all. Suddenly I was faced with going on a Bishops’ Advisory Panel, or BAP, three days of intense scrutiny with other potential ordinands by a team of assessors who would make recommendations about us all.

As the months that this process took progressed, several things became a little clearer. The first was that I could be a vicar and still not know everything – still have days of doubt, still be human, still be me. After all this is an opening up to God and being led by God, I am not expected to do it on my own.

The second was that ordained local ministry would be a better fit than having my own parish. This would mean I could stay in the parish here (hooray!) as part of the team. I would be part-time and self-supporting (ie. non-paid) so I’ll have to keep working elsewhere to bring in the money. That will be OK though as I am rubbish at boundaries I will need help here.

The boundaries issue was one of the points made in the report which came back from those BAP assessors who were really quite nice and not the Harry Potter dementors that I had envisaged. They also came back with a resounding yes! I start training next September on the Guildford Local Ministry Programme with a view to ordination in 2022.

The other thing that has dawned on me is that I am responding to a loving God. A separate, though intertwined, process has been going on over the past few years. With the help of those actually very wise and knowledgeable vicars here in the parish I have gradually been losing my perception of God as an angry taskmaster whom I could never please, and finding that God is a gracious outpouring of love for us all, a God who can help us step into our vocations and allow all of us to live our fullest lives.

Stella Wiseman

 

Vocation

Situations Vacant

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There are a number of jobs which have become vacant after a number of years work by a number of different people.  If you would like to know more about any of these roles please ask Alan or Lesley in the first instance.

Administration

We would like to build up an admin team to print the weekly paperwork and posters.  It could be shared across weeks or even within a week, and could be done on a Thursday morning while coffee is on.  Training in use of the computer and printer will be given.

There are also other admin tasks where help would be great – writing Baptism or Wedding Certificates, updating various spreadsheets – some weekly, some more ad hoc.

Electoral Roll Officer

This role involves keeping a list of those who have signed up to the electoral roll.  It is largely an annual job ensuring that the roll is up to date for the APCM in April, although there are occasional applicants during the year.  Every six years everybody has to reapply and this happens in 2019.  Full training will be given.

Magazine Advertising Manager

This is mainly an annual task and involves billing the existing magazine advertisers, asking whether they wish to continue, checking that the money has been received, and liaising with the editor to ensure that the correct adverts appear in the magazine.  There may be a small amount of work through the year if new advertisers are found.  Full training will be given, but there will also be the opportunity to shape the work to suit your skills and time.

Noticeboard Managers

We would like to build a team at each Church to keep the noticeboards, both internal and external, up to date.  Posters and documents arrive each Sunday in a brown bag and out of date posters need removing and new ones need putting up.  In addition the bag contains children’s colouring sheets, monthly news sheets and special orders of service which need putting out. Would you be willing to do this for your church?

St George's Church, St John's Church, St Mark's Church, Vocation

Leading your Church into Growth

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EVERYONE is invited to be part of the training sessions for Leading your Church into Growth – an exciting programme that will help all the congregations in the parish to grow. It is practical, simple, transformational and fun. Please put these dates in your diary, make it a priority and come along:

Saturday 21st April at St Mark’s 10:00 – 15:30 (though Hannah thinks it may not take that long). We will have pizza for lunch.

At St George’s at 7:30PM:

1st May – Our Focus

22nd May – Our Plan

5th June – Our Culture

4th Sep – Our Calling

25th Sep – Our Journey

16th Oct – Our Heart

At all Churches:

13th Jan – Celebration Services

Lesley Crawley

Vocation

Young Preacher of the Year competition launched

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The Diocese of Guildford has launched its first ever preaching competition for young people. Open to any young preachers with a connection to the diocese, the competition aims to encourage young people to give preaching a try, and to find creative ways in which we can hear the voices of young people.

The sponsor of the project, Bishop Jo Wells, the Bishop of Dorking, said: “I am delighted to launch ‘Young Preacher of the Year’ across the Diocese. It provides an opportunity for any young person aged 14 to 18 to have a go at preaching, and for others to discover budding preachers in their midst.

“Giving young people a voice and a very public platform is vital if we are to be ‘transforming church, and transform lives’ as we proclaim in our vision.  If you are aged 14 to 18 and think this might be for you, we’d love you to enter. All are welcome to enter regardless of experience or qualification.”

The prize for the competition includes both a trophy and the opportunity to preach from the highest pulpit in the area (well above sea level anyway) – the one in Guildford Cathedral.

Entrants must be in school years 10-13 in September 2017 (aged 14-18). Entry is simple – just record yourself preaching for 3-4 minutes on your mobile phone and complete the short entry form on the competition website. More information here www.youngpreacheroftheyear.co.uk

Closing date for entries is 5th November 2017. For a poster to display in your church or school see www.youngpreacheroftheyear.co.uk/poster

To find out more about the Young Preacher of the Year competition, contact organiser David Welch, Diocesan Youth Adviser, by email to david.welch@cofeguildford.org.uk

Vocation

What’s a Prayer Co-ordinator?

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Hello, I’m your Parish Prayer Co-ordinator. Now, I bet you didn’t know we have a Prayer Co-ordinator and perhaps you are wondering what I have been doing all this time. Prayer underpins our lives and the life of our parish. It is the way we communicate with God and it is often an individual matter between you and God. It is certainly NOT the role of Prayer Co-ordinator to interfere in any way with your personal prayer with God.

We have run sessions introducing new ideas to reinvigorate your prayer-life and this is something we could develop. You may have seen pop-up displays in church with photos, artefacts and thought-provoking quotations. Or perhaps you have missed them … they are designed to be a momentary, fresh display to inspire prayer and help you to ponder theological questions during the week. There will be more. They are part of my role: I am passionate about finding ways to get people creatively thinking about prayer.

My latest target in the parish is the Prayer Boards we have in St George’s and St John’s. The aim is to take the prayers made via these boards and present them during the Sunday service. They will be brought to the altar and blessed at the same time as the collection (not read out loud). From there, they will be delivered to me as Prayer Co-ordinator and I will ensure that they are prayed from Thursday till the following Thursday. I believe this scheme will ensure that people’s prayers are prayed and honoured both on the Sunday at the main service and during the following week.
Obviously, if there is a particular pastoral issue, I will relay that to the ministry team. We will be trialling this scheme for three months, starting on 1 October.

If you have any ideas or concerns about this scheme, or the prayer-life of our parish generally, please let me know.

Lesley Shatwell (LLM)
llm.lesley@badshotleaandhale.org

Vocation

Looking forward to Priesting – My Story

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Some thoughts from our curate, Hannah Moore, as she approached her priesting.

I had my call to ordained ministry twenty years ago. I had been recently married and was pursuing my teaching career. One Sunday as a knelt at the communion rail to receive communion I had a real sense of God saying, “Hannah one day you will do this.” My response was “oh okay” and then I put it to the back of my mind. I got on with starting a family, moving back to the UK from South Africa and setting up my own business.

Some fifteen years later, now with two children, I was approached by my local vicar and asked whether I had considered discerning a vocation to ordained ministry.

As he said it, I got butterflies in my tummy and felt electrified. The long forgotten memory from the altar rail came flooding back.

My circumstances twenty-three years ago were so different from today. Pursuing a calling to ordained ministry at that time would probably been easier as I only had myself and my husband to consider. I certainly would not have had to learn juggle as much as I have over the last few years – being a wife, a mother, my theological studies, closing a business, working in a church placement and starting my curacy.

However, I have to trust in God’s timing. He knew the right time for me to answer the call he had placed on my life, he understands the impact it has had on my family.
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Not long after my ordination as a deacon last year, I was assisting at a funeral. I was walking in front of the coffin, leading the family to the graveyard when I had that “aha moment”. A sense of confirmation that I am doing what God wants me to do with my life. I was so excited in that moment that I wanted to do a Charlie Chaplin leap into the air but that would have been inappropriate, so I calmly lead the procession across the road.

The past year since my ordination as a deacon in the Church of England has been a time of learning and growing. I have been able to conduct funerals, baptisms and be involved in various other ministries in the Parish.

By being ordained a priest it will also give me the opportunity to journey with couples towards their wedding day. I am looking forward to performing my first wedding in August which should be a joyful occasion for everyone involved. As I continue my curacy as a priest I am looking forward to finding opportunities to engage with my local community on Sandy Hill and explore plans for extending the community engagement in St John’s Church in Hale.

I am excited and a bit nervous as I will be able to preside at communion. During a communion service the church remembers Jesus’ actions during the Last Supper. Jesus took bread and wine and shared it with his disciples, and he encourages us to continue to do this as we remember his death on the cross and his resurrection. I am looking forward to fulfilling a priestly role at the altar table which draws people closer to God as they remember Jesus actions at the Last Supper, his death and resurrection. In performing this role I believe I am fulfilling what was said to me all those years ago – “Hannah one day you will do this.”

I wanted to finish with a short reflection I have written since my ordination it is called:

‘Just About’

I don’t know about you but I live in a world of “just about.”
I am “just about” on top of my housework.
I am “just about” at the bottom of the ironing pile.
I am “just about” doing all the mum things I need to do.
I am “just about” spending enough time with my husband to keep our relationship safe.
I “just about” manage a weekly catch up with my family.
I “just about” manage to see my pre-ordination friends.
I “just about” play golf weekly to do a bit of exercise.
I have “just about” enough time and energy I need to fulfil my role as a curate.
And then, there are those moments that are “just about” GOD.
Without these valuable “just about” moments…… all the other “just abouts” would be impossible.
Maybe you are “just about” doing what God wants you to do but maybe you are not. Maybe he is calling to something completely different – you will never know unless you push at the door.

Vocation

Introducing our LLM-in-training

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 Hello from Wendy Edwards

A very big thank you, to all of you at St. John’s, for your warm welcome to me since I started worshipping with you on February 19th, 2017.  I look forward to worshipping at St. George’s and St. Mark’s over the summer and to gradually meeting you all.

I am approaching my final year of 4 years of training to be a Licensed Lay Minister and hope to be licensed in June 2018, God willing. I feel excited and grateful to Lesley and Alan that I am now joining the Ministry Team in the Parish of Badshot Lea and Hale.

I was born in Lincolnshire but we moved to Upper Weybourne Lane with my family in 1962 when I was 5 and we moved to Roman Way when I was 9. I attended primary and secondary schools in Farnham. I left home to live in Wimbledon when I was 18, worked in the law and taught Keep Fit classes and returned to Farnham recently, after 41 years away, to live in Oast House Crescent with my husband, Steve.  We have 2 grown up children and a young grandson. We are very grateful to live in such a beautiful, peaceful location.

Sadly, my mum, Jean Parratt, died on my 59th birthday last October. She was known to many of you for her Museum on a Shoestring talks, her work on the Farnham Diary and at Farnham Museum and her 10 books about Farnham.

Through my grief, I have found it heart-warming to benefit from the high regard in which she was held by so many Farnham people. The unique legacy she has left the people of Farnham has buoyed us up immensely and it has helped me to feel seamlessly included in the Farnham community which she loved so much.

I was a bridesmaid twice at St. John’s for my late Uncle Francis when he married Auntie Sally in April 1966 and for my Auntie Margaret and Uncle Geoff. Here is a photo of me at their wedding (I am the dark haired 11-year-old bridesmaid) with my late sister, Debbie (the younger, blonde, bridesmaid) on 25th January 1969.  I look a bit different now and don’t wear turquoise velvet much nowadays! I do look forward to chatting to you over coffee after a service in the coming months.

Best wishes, Wendy Edwards