What is the main focus of your job?The goal of my job is to encourage opportunities for learning – particularly in the north of the Diocese. I spend a lot of my time delivering and facilitating courses, mainly for the church, but the Wisbech Learning Community is also outward focussed, and so I link with local partners to promote training in the wider community, too.I also have the privilege of editing the Sunday Morning Resources, which consists of a team of ministers (lay and ordained) who write sermons and other materials for Sunday services that can then be used by parishes in vacancy – or anyone with responsibility for taking a church service.What do you most enjoy about your work?My favourite thing about the job is that I have the opportunity to meet with people from all around the Diocese who are doing brilliant things in their churches or local communities. Some of these people are part of the Wisbech Learning Community and meet on Tuesday evenings to train to become Licensed Lay Ministers, they are a brilliant group.What do you find challenging about your role?It’s challenging to create something from scratch. When I meet with people with ideas for courses, or a church with training needs, I want to be able to sort something out right away. But it inevitably takes a while to arrange logistics and funding, I hope that once things are more established this will become simpler!What brought you to the Diocese of Ely?I actually came to this diocese for the role, so I moved to Wisbech in February 2019. Before that, I was studying for an MA in Systematic and Philosophical Theology and working in homelessness support. Having worked in community development in the past, I was so interested to see what the Diocese of Ely Changing Market Towns Project was all about.I couldn’t do my job without …As one of the many facets of her role as Operations Manager in the Wisbech Changing Market Towns team, Lucie Foice-Beard works as part of the Wisbech Learning Community team. As someone actively engaged in the local community, Lucie creates vital links with other organisations, as well as providing and designing much of our promotional material.How do people get in touch with you?I love to hear from people, and the best way is through email on lauren.randall@elydiocese.org. Alternatively, take a look at our Facebook page or our Twitter to keep up to date and ask questions.
