Dear Friends

I am writing to you almost exactly a year since I took over as Chair of the Friends. It has been a very positive time for me as I have got to know the other members of the Committee, many of the staff in Diocesan Office and had the opportunity to meet some of you at last year’s annual Friends’ Service and Reunion. 

This newsletter issues just after the most recent meeting of the Friends’ Committee. I was very encouraged by our discussions. Mervyn McCullagh spoke to us about his first six months as Diocesan Secretary, and gave a very positive account of developments in the Diocese, one of a very small number across the Church of England which is seeing sustained growth. 

We approved one grant to support language training (Spanish), noting that two more are in the pipeline. In some initial contacts with those who have benefitted from the assistance provided by the Friends, I have been struck by how much this support is appreciated, and the important role it plays in enhancing their ministry. I plan to share some more detailed feedback from various beneficiaries of your support over the coming months.

Whilst the provision of grants for language training is an important part of our work, we have also helped out in other areas such as the Diocesan Ministry Experience Scheme and in supporting stipendiary curate posts. At last week’s meeting we agreed to explore further ways in which we might support chaplaincies. Our reflections are at an early stage but I hope to be able to report back to you on this also before the end of the year. Of course we have to operate within the resources available to us, and we will continue to be guided by an important principle which informs all our decisions: that we provide targeted and effective support in areas which go beyond the direct responsibility of the Diocese and which assist chaplains and their families, enabling them and their ministry to grow and flourish.

None of this can happen of course without your continuing generosity, so I would like to thank all of you for your ongoing support and commitment to the friends and to the work of the Diocese.

Because our activities are necessarily a function of the resources available to us, we continue to look at how to increase those resources, which first and foremost means expanding membership of the Friends. This is an issue which we looked at again in committee, and we will be reaching out to chaplaincies in the autumn to encourage them to give a little more visibility to our work amongst their congregations.

In our previous newsletter Jeanne included a prayer which I was asked to write for inclusion on the Diocesan website as part of a reorganisation of the section on prayer resources. These went live at the beginning of June, and I hope that many of you will find an opportunity to take a look at them. They can be found at: https://www.europe.anglican.org/resources/prayer. Whilst our financial support is of course a key part of our role, we are also invited to engage in regular prayer for the Diocese and the work of its chaplaincies. I hope that these new resources, combined with the regular prayer diary, can help you in this. 

Our next annual Friends’ Service and Reunion will take place on Tuesday 22 September starting with Choral Evensong at 17.30 followed by an informal gathering in the Gary Weston Library where light refreshments will be available. Both Bishops Robert and Andrew plan to join us, and this is always a great opportunity to meet people for the first time as well as catch up with longstanding friends. I do encourage as many of you as possible to attend. If you plan to come, it would be very helpful if you could let Jeanne French know by email (jeanne.french@churchofengland.org) so we have some idea of numbers.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you an enjoyable and relaxing summer, and thank you again for your continuing and generous support.