Community Chaplains for Great Western Park
Most of you reading this will know of the Circuit's initiative to respond to the huge new housing development at Great Western Park near Didcot by establishing a small team of Chaplains to work there. Good progress has been made since the last issue of the Circuit Exchange.
We have been awarded a grant of £30,000 by the Methodist Church nationally, which together with similar funding from our Northampton District and support from the Circuit, means that we have a financially viable project. We also have consent from the District to advertise these posts of Community Chaplain – as we have decided to call them – hence the appearance of the advertisement.
What we need most of all now is for as many of you as feel able, to pray that the right people will see our advertisement (which is being placed widely outside the Circuit, as well as within it) and be inspired to share our vision and apply for the posts.
You may even feel inspired to apply yourself, or to suggest to someone else that they might apply! We plan to hold interviews on 30 March, with the aim of the Chaplains taking up their posts on 1 May or thereabouts.
Some of you may wish to share our vision but not be sure exactly what it looks like. We might summarise as follows:
We wish, through our Chaplains, who will work from a base not in a Church building (where we expect people to come to us) but in a motor home which can go to where people are, to bring a visible and accessible presence for Christ to every aspect of life on Great Western Park.
We hope – no, we expect! – that some of you will be so inspired by learning what our Chaplains do that you will wish to volunteer as a Chaplain yourself.
We also believe that, in time, some of you will be inspired to seek to establish Community Chaplains for areas of new housing all across our Circuit, because our full vision is that what we are starting here is not just for Great western Park: it is for everywhere.
But, for now, please pray... Alan Smith
Please pray for:
The process of employing these two people that the right people will be inspired to apply
All those involved in that process-especially those who will interview and decide who to appoint
The purchase of a suitable vehicle to act as a mobile office and visible presence
Katherine Pickering as she takes on the extra role of line-managing the chaplains once they are appointed
The chaplains themselves as they seek to find out what being community chaplains on GWP involves.
The flourishing community café on GWP,and its team of enthusiastic volunteers
May all involved in this pioneering project both seek and know God's guidance, to the glory of God and the furtherance of his kingdom.
Wantage Methodist Church
Newbury Street
Wantage
Oxfordshire
OX12 8DA