"When you step into the ministry experience scheme, you're not just volunteering for a year. You're entering into a journey of discovery, of God, the Church, and of yourself. 

We discovered that ministry is about presence, hospitality and reconciliation. So what is there for us? A chance to grow, a chance to listen, a chance to discover how God might be calling us forward. The ministry experience scheme is not the end of the journey. It's the beginning." Ashir, MES participant from Holy Trinity, Utrecht
 

Canon Dr Clare Amos is our amazing Director of Lay Discipleship and Ministry Experience Scheme.  Here she introduces the impactful tours that the Ministry Experience Scheme participants enjoy each year, and something of the recent tour to Cyprus they have just returned from;

"It has been a joy to spend a week journeying together in Cyprus with this year's Diocese in Europe Ministry Experience Scheme participants.  Each year we try to spend a week together about mid-way through people's placements in a land of pilgrimage. For the last couple of years we have made Cyprus our destination and travelled to the island holding the journey of Barnabas and Saul in mind. Indeed Cyprus seems to have been a place of transition in the life of the early Church; it was where Saul became Paul and where a faith which had been birthed in semitic lands first encountered the challenges  - and the glories - of the Graeco-Roman world.

During our days in Cyprus we reflected on the 'crossroads' nature of Cyprus, both then and now. The modern realities of the island forced us to acknowledge the ways that religion, politics and culture entwine with each other, both negatively and positively. We also enjoyed meeting with representatives of the Anglican Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf and being reminded that the Anglican Communion is wider than the Church of England.

A special moment for me in our two Cyprus pilgrimages has been our celebration of the Eucharist at an Anglican chapel in the high Troodos mountains. Time and place have meant that we appropriately focused on the Transfiguration of Christ. It was a moment to recall with our MES participants those words of Michael Ramsey, 'To be a theologian is to be exposed to the vision of heaven and the tragedies of mankind'. My own desire and commitment is to enable all God's people to be theologians in this sense: I believe and trust that our days together in Cyprus may have helped our young people to realise something of this 'vision'."

We are very grateful to one of the MES participants on the tour, Noura, for sending us the beautiful updates below.  

We are very blessed to have such a vibrant and popular Ministry Experience Scheme in our diocese, which is having such positive impacts on so many.  Please remember to keep all in your prayers.

For more information about the scheme, please see our webpage here: Ministry Experience Scheme

There are further videos from previous participants on our You Tube channel.