Reader Recruitment

Discernment of vocation is important all year round but it is high on the list of priorities at this time of year with deadlines looming for applications and tutors wondering if courses will be running.

More about Sens Kernewek further down the page!

FICM Foundations in Christian Ministry  is the starting point for many types of ministry and a great place at which to point people who are exploring, or should be exploring the possibilities of Reader ministry, ordained ministry, Pioneers, parish nurses, worship leaders and so on. The link is the title in this paragraph will take you to starting points

As Readers/ Licensed Lay ministers we are well placed to spot those folk in our churches who might need some encouragement to take another step! People often need encouragement  and someone saying, “have you thought about…… “ and “you know you have a real talent for that have you thought about…….” Gives them the nudge that sends on the next stage of their faith journey.

The Parish of Redruth has a new rector.

In Redruth, now five churches, six settings and one parish, we have a new Rector, Rev’d Becca Bell and we await her arrival with enthusiasm. I await the arrival with a sense of relied that I don’t have to collate any more parish profiles, consult any more committees of position and border any more photographs!!  The licensing is not until September so in the meantime the Ministry team is  working hard and not only keeping the show on the road but also making sure that our new priest will have some space to discern the skills and qualities in her team and to get to know the congregations and spot talent that is as yet hidden! 

Across the diocese we have many long serving Readers / LLMs who have seen many incumbents come and go…. what three pieces of advice would you give to a new incumbent? 

Sens Kernewek

Part of the preparation for the new incumbent is for our two readers (Jason and me) to enrol on the Sens Kernewek course with the aim of providing greater flexibility and capacity should it be required.  Having said that, my main motive for doing the course was so that I could talk about and answer questions about it!

For the official information and application form click here: Sens Kernewek Archives – Truro Diocese : Truro Diocesee:

Last Monday evening was the last session of what has been an uplifting course with an eclectic group of people that somewhat miraculously managed to please everyone and send them away looking forward to the reflective practice groups.

When Sens Kernewek was first recruiting I was reluctant to take part thinking that as  Reader, and an experienced one at that, that I would learn little and that it was not for me because I had no intentions of leading a particular church. Our Parish is not set up that way! Over time, however, I have spoken to people who have been in the other cohorts who were invariably positive about it and my application was put in on the grounds of wanting to learn what it was all about so that other Readers/ LLMs could decide its usefulness to them.  I also wanted to provide some extra capacity for the ministry term in case a new incumbent wanted / needed to arrange things differently.

Although there was some cross-over the reasons for taking part were as varied as the people. There were several church wardens leading services and indeed churches in the absence of a minister, someone was pioneering a night church and pondering next steps, and there were four readers all seeking training opportunities to keep themselves informed.

Whether or not folk are commissioned as local lay leaders with a ready-made situation, the course was and is relevant to all those taking part.

One of the thoughts that crossed my mind was about leadership outside of ‘church’ situations such as the ZOOM  daily morning prayer and making sure that it serves the faithful group who gather from the churches around the parish and visitors from elsewhere in the diocese. The leadership also applies to house groups and study groups which are a vital part of encouraging the exploring of vocations of all sorts.

 If you have been in any of the Sens Kernewek cohort’s let me know what you would say to someone thinking of doing. 

Annual Reader Day

Is on Saturday 13th April at St Petroc’s in Bodmin. Some fantastic things have been planned and it would be wonderful to see a good turn out this year. More details to follow.

Training and Training Opportunities. 

The readers who were licensed last October and some more experienced readers gathered at Epiphany house on Saturday for a day on creating worship with Lydia. interestingly, the only person there who was not a reader was john Ievans, the director of Lay Ministry Training.  During the day several readers commented about how nice it was to have training specifically for them. There is a day on funeral ministry to which you will all be invited, but next year there will be no Post Licensing Group so it might be a good chance for training that we can all do. But….. what would you like to explore??

Chaplains blog Stardate 02-03-24

Incumbents come and go like the tide but us Readers / Licensed Lay Ministers remain on the shore.

I got that far with the metaphor but after that my thoughts went a little astray as always… but I wonder if some readers are like King Cnut/Canute attempting helplessness to hold back the tide. Others might be wandering the tide line picking up flotsam and jetsam deciding what might be useful and what needs to be put away in a black sack for the refuse collection.

Others might have their feet up in their deck chairs, a drink in their hand or cradling their thermos of tea watching the incoming tide from a safe distance. Then there will be the ones who push the paddle board out onto the waters ready to drag casualties from the waves of change.

Can you think of some others?

The transition period between incumbents is always a cross between limbo land and the relentless string of extra things to do and as I have become more experienced in parish life, the tasks get more rather than less.  Although making sure every member of our six worship settings (five Anglican churches and a Methodist church) had the opportunity to, not only voice their opinions, but also to make sure their opinions were represented in anything published proved a large but largely satisfying and worthwhile task.  Thankfully that task is over for now as we wait out the period before the next leader is announced!

Does anyone else remember the I-Spy books which encouraged children to spot and collect sightings of anything from Aircraft to ZOOs. For the adult range, I have often thought that the I-Spy book of NHS medical equipment I have experienced might be ‘fun,’ from the aerosol nose spray to the x-ray machine… now I am wondering about the I-spy book of Priests- which are becoming an increasingly rare breed.  

I am not sure that categorisation would be simple apart from the obvious, curate, deacon, vicar, padre, archdeacon, rural dean and so on but even those are a confused jumble. Then  you might think of evangelical, charismatic, liberal Anglo-Catholic, Catholic….  Er…… traditional, experimental, heretical…… it must be totally confusing to non-church folk!

My first Rector of Redruth back in the late 1970s was Canon Harold Hosking who was formally Anglo-Catholic and for whom a nave altar would have been sacrilegious and the thought of anyone reading the Gospel other than the priest would have been equally problematic. It says much when my five-year-old daughter had to stop being boat-girl because that was the upper limit for her gender to be in the sanctuary. Girls had to leave the choir at the age of 14 back then- I am not even going to speculate or say something funny about the reasons.

Following Canon Harold’s retirement, the next rector was Fr Graeme Elmore who arrived from Newlyn in 1984 and was altogether different  in his approach but Anglo-Catholic with an evangelical flavour!  He encouraged the house group we had in our home, Solomon’s Porch,  which, over the few years that he was incumbent spawned 2 Readers, 2 Methodist local preachers, 4 priests and numerous church-wardens, sacristans and other key workers. He took us on retreats and away-days and provided experiences, from the full easter-Triduum, to informal family services.  That sort of growth and change was not altogether popular with the older generation in the church and, especially when my wife, Lez was nominated as the first female and youngest church warden. The Masonic element in the congregation made a huge attempt to block it, even nominating a chap from their lodge who they had managed to get on the electoral role.  That sort of pettiness takes its tole on rectors and Graeme sadly for us left to become a naval chaplain…. Eventually leaving the Anglican Church over the little matter of women priests which surprised me!

After Graeme came Canon Michael Simcock to soothe the troubled waters by preaching calming sermons often about the Ffestiniog railway. I was training to be a Reader when he arrived and I seemed to be on the rota entirely for Matins and Evensong and the hospital, I don’t think I ever preached in a communion service.  Canon Michael was very middle of the road but retired after three years and this heralded the arrival of the Company of Mission Priests!

The Company  (The Company of Mission Priests (CMP) is a “dispersed community” of male priests of the Anglican Communion who want to consecrate themselves wholly to the church’s mission, free from the attachments of marriage and family.)  were part of a religious order who had a “father knows best” approach, had no idea what to do with Readers, appeared to scorn home groups as something could not control and whose closed ranks tactics was personally depressing, especially when the hugely popular Christmas Eve with the Children service was wrested from my grasp with a negative impact on numbers. They were as close as one could get to Rome without actually being in the Roman Catholic Church. They were very good pastorally with old ladies but they too succumbed to the vote to allow women to be ordained and they left on block in 1992 to join the Roman Catholic Church.

Another calming force in the shape of Fr Roger Bush took over in 1993 and he remained for a decade before being appointed as dean of Truro Cathedral.  Roger managed largely to please most of the people most of the time by treading a safe and gentle middle path and his time at Redruth  is spoken of most fondly to this day.  

Fr Simon Cade took up the reins after an 18 month interregnum and was with us for ten years until the Diocese decided that he should be doing higher things, first with education and latterly as Diocesan secretary.  His Anglo-Catholic approach was both  challenging  and innovative and had a big impact on my own preaching style. I had never seen a preacher wander the aisle leaving the safety of lectern or pulpit or put such drama into services such as The Watch. The stories are many but not for this piece.

Following Fr Simon we had someone with a  wholly different approach in Caspar Bush who was from the other end of the candle but managed the tricky task, eventually, of pulling together a strong team and  succeeding in joining three parishes, 5 DCCs and 6 worship settings into one parish just in time for his successor to benefit.

Our new incumbent will break new ground and unlike the septuagenarians of the last century when i was in my 20’s and 30’s, I am looking forward to the journey, the challenges ahead and discovering God’s path for the parish and it’s new rector.