We're delighted to announce that while we were celebrating ten years of Anna Chaplaincy at Christ Church Cathedral, our colleague and senior member of our network was being installed as a Canon of Winchester Cathedral. Canon Dr Erica Roberts has been pioneering work with older people in Southampton for a number of years and founded the charity Caraway, not only to help fund Anna Chaplaincy in the city but to further promote and resource the spiritual well-being of those in their older years. Caraway is a Christian charity working alongside those with and without faith in Southampton and beyond.
Working in partnership with churches and the health and social sectors, Caraway supports those at home, in the community and in residential care, particularly addressing the needs of those who are lonely, socially isolated or living with dementia. For more information, click here.
We are thrilled to see Erica, a former paediatric oncologist who is a self-supporting minister, receiving such recognition. The Bishop of Winchester, the Right Revd Tim Dakin, in his address at the Candlemas service at Winchester Cathedral, at which Erica and two others were installed in to the College of Canons, paid tribute to both Anna Chaplaincy and Caraway:
'Erica, thank you for the example you’ve set in the ministry of Caraway: as City Chaplain to the elderly in Southampton, you have worked in partnership with others in voluntary and statutory sectors to be an advocate for the older person and to help resource those who are physically and cognitively vulnerable. In the Counties of Hampshire and East Dorset, where our population is getting older, that is a significant ministry. Thank you for setting an example others can follow, especially those in the Anna Chaplaincy ministry, which began in this diocese and which has been of special interest for us today when we remember Jesus being presented in the temple and being met by two older people: Anna and Simeon.'
You may read his full sermon here.