Julia Burton-Jones, Anna Chaplaincy lead for Rochester and Canterbury Dioceses, is thankful to reflect on several recent events to commission new team members in Kent.
On 28 April Katja Svarts was commissioned Anna Chaplain at All Saints Church in Maidstone and became the 23rd Anna Chaplain in Canterbury Diocese. Since coming to the UK from Finland, Katja has worked in a variety of caring roles, and is currently teaching assistant in a special school. At a local hub meeting for the Maidstone team on 24 July, her vicar the Revd John Richardson reflected on the impact Katja has had already through her sensitive ministry. She is a welcome visitor, takes services and befriends residents at Lukestone care home in Maidstone, provides a chaplaincy presence at All Saints’ Saturday morning Community Café, and she visits several older people in their own homes. Members of the hub were delighted to be served cinnamon buns Katja had baked for the meeting, and the Revd John said this is a regular treat shared with the church community!
In June, at Hextable Methodist Church, Lorna and John Kahan were commissioned Anna Chaplain and Anna Friend by their minister, the Revd Gill Boutillier-Scott. Lorna and John have been involved in older people’s ministry and Anna Chaplaincy for a very long time and it was wonderful to have them affirmed in their new church. Lorna says:
‘We were blessed to be re-commissioned on Sunday 9 June at Hextable Methodist Church as Anna Chaplain and Anna Friend. We continue in our roles helping to run the monthly pop-in afternoon and organise the annual Churches Together in Swanley and District’s Holiday at Home, held at our church, which is always great fun. Recently we have been taking services at Birchwood Heights care home. We have four members of our church who are housebound, so I take “Church at home” to them with a mixture of hymns, prayers, reflections and creativity. John is very much involved with the foodbank in Swanley. We thank everyone for their support and prayers for our ministry.’
Reflecting in advance of the service, the Revd Gill said:
‘Lorna and John are such gifted people, and we are very thankful to have them as a part of our congregation’.
Finally, 27 June saw the annual service at which Bishop Jonathan (Bishop of Rochester) commissioned new Anna Chaplains. This year six new Anna Chaplains were commissioned:
Robert Dammers from St Peter’s,Pembury
The Revd Neil Fairlamb from Bromley deanery
The Revd Canon Mandy Brown from East Dartford benefice
Ruth Mason from Kemsing and Woodlands benefice
Bridget Nightingale from St Philip and St James, Chatham
Maureen Mead from Christ Church, Luton
At the service, which was held in a marquee in the garden of Bishopscourt (where the bishop lives), Julia introduced the new Anna Chaplains, all of whom she came to know through training them, saying:
‘Bridget and her husband Peter were involved together for many years in ministry among older people, so this commissioning represents a new chapter. We hope that the experience, passion and pastoral heart Bridget brings to her work will lead the way for others to join her in ministry with seniors, hopefully working herself out of a job before long! Bridget draws on her nursing background and she and Peter were among the first to use Pilgrim Friend’s Brain and Soul Boosting resources with a group of older people in the parish Maureen shares a nursing background with Bridget and was community midwife in Chatham so is a well-known local face. She and her vicar Andrea have a vibrant ministry in the care home close to Christ Church and their Tuesday morning community café, Café Plus, draws older people from church and community, as well as the care home. You can find Maureen offering hand massages to Café Plus guests – a skill she learned while on the team of the Wisdom Hospice. Luton is a highly multicultural area and Maureen would like to explore working with seniors across the communities represented. Neil is working flexibly across the parishes in Bromley deanery to address the spiritual needs of older people, drawing on his many years in parish ministry before retiring to Bromley College, including many years in Anglesey in Wales. His main focus is working in two central Bromley parishes – St Peter and St Paul, and St Mark; he will be looking at how the spiritual needs of older men can be met. Mandy (like Maureen and Bridget) brings a background in nursing and especially caring for older people, before her years in parish ministry from which she retired recently. She and incumbent Mandy Young have plans to build a team of Anna Chaplains and Anna Friends, mentored and supported by Mandy so that she can eventually hand over the leadership to others. She has also trained as a volunteer hospital chaplain and will look at connecting the chaplaincy settings - in hospital and back home in the community when older people are discharged. She is looking forward to forging links with the large new care home in the benefice. Robert was licensed as lay minister in May and as his training progressed, he recognised a calling to ministry among older people. St Peter’s has recently established a Friday afternoon service aimed at those living with dementia, to complement the work of the Dementia Café at Pembury Baptist. He is aware of substantial spiritual need among older people living in their own homes and in the care homes in the benefice. Ruth is an established licensed lay minister in Kemsing and Woodlands with much experience of ministry with older people. She is anticipating the opening of a new church hall, after a fire which destroyed the previous building. There are plans for the hall to become a community hub for Kemsing, offering activities across the generations, including for older people. The aim is to work in partnership with other local organisations on the health and wellbeing of the community, including perhaps social prescribing services for people who are lonely. She senses having an Anna Chaplain as part of this new hub will add a dimension of spiritual care and will act as a bridge between church, community and local agencies like community nursing and Age UK. Each person being commissioned today has a unique and distinctive ministry to offer in their widely differing settings. Building a team of Anna Friends and other volunteers to come alongside them will enable the ministry and outreach to older people to grow. We hope and pray that the parishes welcoming Anna Chaplains today will see a flourishing in their seniors ministry in the years to come.’
Bishop’s Chaplain the Revd Canon June Lawson was the speaker at the diocesan commissioning event. June inspired the new Anna Chaplains with her words, including the following thoughts:
‘Chaplains are called to offer care and bring community to those feeling isolated due to age and infirmity. It is first and foremost a ministry of presence, of being there, of journeying with, of coming alongside, of paying attention to another with love and respect. To “pay attention” with care and compassion to someone’s life journey with all that entails for them in their particular time and place is to value that person, giving them dignity as a beloved child of God. That paying attention may include words and actions, it may be a companionable silence: being rather doing or speaking. As one chaplain described, “When words won’t help, people only need your compassionate presence.” It is a vital and key ministry that requires compassion, commitment and understanding. As followers of Jesus, we are called to support our elders, ensuring they feel valued, loved and spiritually attended to. By providing hope, purpose and a sense of community, we reflect the love of Christ and uphold the dignity and worth of every individual. People who offer spiritual care will have had said to them, at some point, a variation of what someone wrote to me: “We are very appreciative for your just being with us. You did not thrust religion down our throats. We knew what you stood for, and it was hugely important for us when you were simply standing with us.” “Spiritual care” in paying attention with care and compassion testifies to the inherent value of each individual amidst the challenges of old age. In Isaiah 46:4, we read, “even to your old age and grey hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you”. The presence of the chaplain offering spiritual care is a reminder that God has not forgotten them. Chaplains offer a supportive pastoral presence that displays sensitivity to the uniqueness of the spiritual journey of each human being as they search for spiritual and/or religious meaning in the context of their life’s journey. Chaplaincy in “whatever context is often about being called to stand in the places where there are no answers and having the courage and steadiness to be there.” (Church of England publicity on chaplaincy, 2001).’
The new BRF Ministries Anna Friends training course, piloted in Kent and launched nationally in late 2023, has been used by several Anna Chaplains across Kent to train their volunteers, many of whom are being commissioned at special services in their parishes. Another first for Anna Chaplaincy Kent is that three Anna Chaplains in Canterbury Diocese – Jayne Edinboro from Whitstable, Sally Waters from Canterbury and Bill Mills from Folkestone – were ordained deacon on 29 June. They are among the first in the diocese who have used the new Dover Pathway, a route to ordination as a Distinctive Deacon or Assistant Priest for those over-65.
Julia reflected on the experience of working with the new team members as they prepared for their roles in churches across Kent:
‘It is humbling and inspiring to sense the commitment and skill in people coming forward for this vital ministry among older people, many of whom are themselves in their later years. As the population of Kent ages, these volunteers fulfil a vital role in keeping older people connected with their church and community, enabling them to feel loved and remembered, by God and by their neighbours.’
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