‘Our whole church has blessed me with prayer support’

Jill Gooding’s commissioning service as an Anna Chaplain was held on 28 July 2024 at Holy Trinity Church Aldershot. She writes:

In fact, I was commissioned twice as we enabled the whole church congregation to be a part of and it was held at both our traditional and contemporary service. The picture is at the traditional service with the vicar the Revd George Newton, who has supported me in this journey along with my family and our whole church that has blessed me with prayer support. We had planned to hold the service earlier, but I was ordained priest at the end of June and then there were other events to celebrate/recognise in the weeks subsequent to this.

The Revd Jill Gooding at her commissioning, with the Revd George Newton (Photo by Andrew Gooding).

As you can see from my smile, it was a great delight for me to be (finally) commissioned. I found out about Anna Chaplaincy some years ago but was busy working in the NHS at the time. I have worked for many years as a doctor in palliative care and until three years ago on the ‘Frailty team’ at a district hospital offering support to the very elderly and their families.  As part of my ordination training, I did a brilliant placement with the then Anna Chaplain, the Revd Nicky Smallwood at Binstead, Froyle and Bentley and saw first-hand the wonderful support that was offered by the Anna Chaplain and her team of Anna friends, always so needed but even more so then as we were still with some Covid restrictions. This confirmed that part of my future ministry would be as an Anna Chaplain.

During my year as deacon, I began visiting two nursing homes and what a delight and joy that has been, chatting and listening to people’s stories seeing people reconnect with their faith, enjoying singing traditional hymns and more recently taking part in Holy Communion.

I am looking forward to building a team of Anna Friends and working towards having spiritual support in all the nursing homes in Aldershot.