Alton - birthplace of Anna Chaplaincy- commissions new recruit Emily

debbiethrower0
2 days ago
3 min read

In a packed St Lawrence Church in Alton yesterday morning, Anglicans and Methodists joined to welcome Emily Spencer as the new Anna Chaplain for the town and surrounding Hampshire villages.

With her husband - Vicar of Cowplain, the Revd Chris Spencer and their two daughters Chloe and Leah - beside her, Emily spoke confidently of her sense of calling to the post. She has experience as a Pastoral Worker for the Methodist Church in Bristol and most recently working with adolescents in Portsmouth. But it is her affinity with older people and their stories which has drawn her to the role in the market town and rural villages where Anna Chaplaincy has its roots.

The commissioning - with the Revd Philp Simpkins and the Revd David Chattell leading the service

The Revd Philip Simpkins, of Alton Methodist Church worked with Emily in a previous post and described Emily's 'gentle and godly grace'. He spoke of her 'ministry of tea and cake', and referred to an article she wrote for this summer's edition of Plus magazine (for Christians on Ageing):

'I spent a lot of time having tea and cake with people, primarily from the older generation around their house. Despite being a 'perk' of the job, I also found it to be an immense privilege being invited into someone's private space, where they would often share personal and emotionally significant parts of their lives with me in a very real and genuine way.

And all this is often centred around the power of a piece of cake (or some nice biscuits!) From these hospitable experiences, I learnt the power and healing that is in a simple conversation with another person. Quite often, the people I was visiting in my role just needed someone to share their story with and to feel valued and validated.'

Philip Simpkins described how hard it is sometimes to sit with someone who is hurting and not try to 'fix things'. As Henry Nouwen wisely wrote: 'Care is being present to each other’s pain without trying to fix it.’

He said that all Christians are called to care for others:

'We are called to care, because first, God cares for us.'

He drew the distinction between pastoral and spiritual care:

'Spiritual care is not just about offering a religious answer, but about accompanying someone of great, little or no faith, on their inner journey, that they might find a sense of peace.

Sometimes we are prompted to pray with another person, recognising that God is our strength.

Sometimes we are simply led to walk with another person respecting their space to explore the deeper questions of life.'

And his address ended with this prayer:

Heavenly Father,

Thank you that you are our keeper,

our protector, and our helper.

Teach us to trust in your watchful care,

knowing that you watch over our coming and our going

both now and for evermore.

Help us to ‘watch over one another in love’

as we seek together to live a life of pastoral and spiritual care.

In Jesus name.

Amen

The Revd Philip Simpkins and Emily Spencer

Alton currently has a team of more than a dozen Anna Friends volunteering alongside the Anna Chaplain. Ensuring that during the recruitment period the team remained motivated as they continued offering worship in care homes and retirement complexes and putting on social events has largely fallen to one of their number, Sarah Neish. She was heartily thanked at the end of the service for all her help and leadership in the interim period.

Both Sarah and Emily were presented with beautiful pink bouquets of flowers in gratitude for all that has been happening and all that is to come!

Anna Chaplaincy has been possible thanks to a covenant-signing between Anglicans and Methodists locally in 2009 which led to the creation of GAP - the Greater Alton Project- an umbrella for much cross- denominational support and collaboration on various areas of ministry.

The first such part-time, paid, chaplain dedicated to serving older people and carers was appointed a year later, in 2010. The ecumenical nature of the national Anna Chaplaincy movement spearheaded by BRF Ministries (which took on the concept to grow it nationally from 2014) has been a key feature of the model's success.

There are now Anna Chaplains in many different parts of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland; to date, 446 Anna Chaplains across the UK and dozens more Anna Friends. They are having an estimated more than one million encounters a year with older people, family carers and professionals.

At the same time that Emily was being commissioned at St Lawrence Church yesterday another Anna Chaplain, Sarah, was being commissioned 125 miles away in Corby, Northamptonshire. We hope to carry a report on that occasion too very soon!