Reflections and Stories

Coming Home to Chaplaincy

20 May 2019

In 2012, after years of working hard to get the grades I needed to get a place at university and move away from my hometown, I found myself as an undergrad at Newcastle University - the furthest away I could get whilst still being in England.

I had been working shifts while retaking A-...

Read more

Finding Faith through Chaplaincy

20 May 2019

I became a Christian in my penultimate term of university. It was the end of a period in which God was leading me to Him.

I had seen Christianity as a moral way to live, but didn’t believe in Jesus. This gradually changed at university. I met people who were open about their faith and who...

Read more

The Breathing Sacrament of Chaplaincy

3 May 2019

CN: references psychosis, suicide/suicide attempt, trauma.

University chaplains champion faith presence and practices on campus. What is sometimes less obvious is that they are part of university wellbeing teams: there for anyone of any faith, denomination or none, for...

Read more

Rach's Reflection: Championing Chaplaincy

3 May 2019

One of the many joys in my job as the Regional Development Worker for the North West is the time I spend with chaplains. Whether it’s a Facebook chat planning preaching appointments, a 1-2-1 over a cuppa, or a phone call to check that they're okay and talk about how I can support them and their...

Read more

Challenge Accepted!

30 Apr 2019

As a teenager, whenever someone uttered those dreaded words, “I challenge you to…”, I could never resist attempting straightaway whatever it was that ended the sentence. As a result I wouldn’t normally recommend jumping into something so quickly, but as part of...

Read more

A Community Divided?

21 Mar 2019

Speaking as someone who has grown up in the Methodist tradition and still proudly calls themselves a Methodist, recent events at the United Methodist Church General Conference (UMCGC) have saddened me deeply. For those of you who aren’t clued up on Methodism, ie. most people, the United...

Read more

Carving Out Christian Community

20 Mar 2019
How do you participate in a Christian community when you cannot attend church due to health issues? This was the painful predicament I found myself in several years ago, when a shift in my mental stability meant that attending church became challenging and, at times, even dangerous. I do not...
Read more

Community In Action

14 Mar 2019

I will never forget the moment that I knew I wanted to become a Church Related Community Worker (CRCW) with the United Reformed Church. Community work has always been a big part of my life. In the village where I used to live, teach and worship, I organised Messy Church sessions, set up Guiding...

Read more

Celebrating Community in Lent

14 Mar 2019
I have successfully celebrated Lent one time in my life, and I look back on it with a mixture of horror and laughter; I would really prefer to never again go 40 days drinking only water! It was a valiant effort tied with a charity fundraiser, and I’m impressed I accomplished it. However, the...
Read more

Methodist and Proud

6 Mar 2019

I am a Methodist. I love the Methodist Church, and one of the things I most value about being a Methodist is our connexionalism - the idea that we are all interdependent. Despite the fact that the Methodist Church in Britain is not a...

Read more