Passing on the baton of Anna Chaplaincy in Chipping Campden

debbiethrower0
Oct 9
3 min read

Karen Olorenshaw at her commissioning service, with the Revd Phil Deller, former Anna Chaplain Wendy Gleadle and support from other church members.

'My bubble of excitement began to grow'

Karen Olorenshaw was commissioned as an Anna Chaplain at Chipping Campden Baptist Church at the end of September. 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' she continued, '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, different 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… and 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 4th 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 new-borns 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.'

Since the commissioning service Karen has had a busy time; she reports, "we held a Harvest Festival-type service on Tuesday morning, during which the residents and carers were asked to think about what they wanted to say thank you to God for. Here is a photo of the poster that was created in the session."