Marion Hitchins, Anna Chaplain in east Southampton
‘My interest in older people began very early in my life, as I spent a lot of time with my maternal grandmother. I would spend time asking her about events large and small that she remembered. At the age of 11, I joined the Junior Red Cross and one of our activities was to go into a local care home on Saturdays, make the tea and talk to the residents. I had no idea then how valuable this experience would be in my later ministry. When I was 18 I started training to be a nurse.
Growing up, I didn't attended church regularly and had very little understanding of the relevance of God in my life. In my early 20s a devastating life experience set me on the path of seeking God and looking for his plan in my life. I gave my life to Christ when I was 24 and started to attend a very community-minded, socially active church.
Marion Hitchins (right) with the Revd Dr Erica Roberts
As my children grew up, I realised that God was then calling me to go out into my community and love the poor, the weak and the vulnerable. At this time, I worked full-time for my church, as the manager of a community centre, where among other things we hosted a specialist group for people with learning disabilities and groups for older people. I feel that this time in my life gave me a very broad experience of working alongside many different people, some of whom were the weakest and most vulnerable in our community. I trained in listening and as a Christian counsellor. I also spent two years at Bible College, one as a student and one on their ministry team.
Just as I retired from being a disability team administrator, the Revd Dr Erica Roberts was commissioned as the Older People's Chaplain for Southampton and I started to work as part of the team going into care homes to take church services. In 2018, I had the joy and privilege of being commissioned as an Anna Chaplain by the Bishop of Southampton. I am now involved in many aspects of the work of an Anna Chaplain, including care homes, lunch clubs, tea clubs, one-to-one visiting and Vintage Adventure (Messy Vintage), but I know that I can look back and be grateful to God for the way he has led, equipped and guided me to the place where I am now.’
James Reeve, Anna Chaplain in Stafford
James Reeve is a mental health nurse by background and he belongs to the Elim Pentecostal Church in Stafford where he is licensed to serve as an Anna Chaplain. What prompted his move into ministry with older people?
‘I guess seeing our parents getting older was part of it, but it was more the fact that we invest so much in children’s and youth work, but most churches don’t invest much time and resources in older people. That thought weighed on my heart and when we went to the Elim Leaders’ Summit in May 2023, Debbie Ducille – the Anna Chaplaincy lead – was there. I’d been praying, “What do you want me to do God?” I think God had already prepared my heart to hear what Debbie had to say.’
Things moved quickly and soon James began his Anna Chaplaincy training. While he was training he contacted the Christian network ‘Love Stafford’ to ask what they were doing for older people. That contact led to him to become a regular visitor to the Brooklands retirement complex, where residents had recently lost their chaplain. ‘They’d organised quite a lot themselves, carrying on the pattern the former chaplain followed, and we were asked to take over leading a monthly fun, fellowship and discussion evening, which people really enjoy.’
James is Stafford’s first Anna Chaplain and he’s looking to recruit some Anna Friends to help expand the work. ‘I see so much that we could be doing if we could encourage more people to get involved. There’s already some interest, but it’s still early days.’ James finds his work with older people incredibly rewarding. ‘I love journeying with people; just spending time with them and listening to their stories is so interesting. With communal living, perhaps they wouldn’t necessarily choose to be friends with all these people, but they’re all thrown together and it’s so interesting and inspiring to discover different people’s perspectives and experiences of life.’
A lot of the conversations James has with older people come round to their feelings of loss. ‘They’re losing the things that have defined them: the roles, relationships and activities that gave them their identity, and they often feel unseen and ignored.’ And yet his ministry with older people is anything but sad and hopeless. ‘People are getting older, but that doesn’t mean they’re not able to serve anymore or that they can’t find new meaning and purpose at this stage of life. By listening, being present, we’re giving them the opportunity to look at what they can do. I’ve never felt it a hopeless ministry at all. I get such a lot of joy and I think the people we spend time with also get a lot of joy out of the conversations or even in just sitting quietly without talking. And we have a lot of fun, in the various activities as well as in the conversations.’
Karen Olorenshaw, Anna Chaplain in Chipping Campden
Karen Olorenshaw was commissioned as an Anna Chaplain at Chipping Campden Baptist Church in the autumn of 2025. She writes:
‘My path to becoming an Anna Chaplain has been somewhat lengthy; at times I’ve felt a bit like Jonah, running in the opposite direction, saying “not me Lord”… not because I didn’t want to be an Anna Chaplain (quite the opposite) but I wanted to be 110% sure it was what God was calling me to and not something that seemed a good fit for me. At Campden Baptist Church we have had a wonderful Anna Chaplain, Wendy Geadle, for five years and it was Wendy who first approached me and asked me to prayerfully consider becoming an Anna Chaplain. My job at the time was quite pressurised and hours could be unpredictable (I was a nurse in the NHS) and I didn’t feel I could give the role the time it deserved, so I declined. However a bubble of excitement about the role lodged itself deep within me and try as I might (and I did) I couldn’t quite suppress that bubble.
‘Over the coming months I had extraordinary God-incidences, little encouragements and “signposts” for me to take on the role of an Anna Chaplain. I retired from the NHS earlier this year and commenced the Anna Chaplain course in May. It was a great course, covering all aspects of ageing, physical, emotional and spiritual needs, how changes in life circumstances can lead to loneliness, causing the person affected to feel invisible, cut off and with a lack of self worth. We heard from inspiring Anna Chaplains who generously gave us an insight into what the role looked like in their area and they explained what a multifaceted role it is. We learned that Anna Chaplaincy is person centred, non judgemental, assisting older people, meeting people where they are, supporting them spiritually and that it is for people of all faiths and none…..my bubble of excitement began to grow as the weeks went by. Most importantly, I learned the main role of an Anna Chaplain, isn’t to do, but to be alongside, to sit, to listen, acknowledging the world from that person’s perspective.
‘I am both humbled and excited to have been commissioned as the Anna Chaplain for Campden Baptist Church; what a privilege to be alongside people in their fourth age offering encouragement, a listening ear, celebrating in their joys and supporting in more challenging, difficult times. If I was to ask for prayer it would be that I hear clearly from God about the direction he wants to take me… less of me and more of him.’
The Revd Philip Deller from Campden Baptist church says: ‘As a church family, we are delighted to have Karen coming on board our ministry team as our Anna chaplain. We always count it a real blessing that as a church family we have a wide age demographic of newborns to nineties! As we seek to invest in our Children and Young People, we also want to invest in caring for our older people too. Anna Chaplaincy enables that focus and with Karen and the Anna Friends we have a gifted group who can not only minister to those within the church family but to those in the community too. Karen is and will be a blessing.’
