The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Reconciliation Ministry team have launched a “transformative” course for prisons that explores conflict, forgiveness and reconciliation. The course is based on Difference, a five-session course that explores following Jesus in a complex and divided world, navigating disagreement, practising forgiveness, and crossing divides through everyday encounters.The new course is being launched this week at a national training event for Anglican prison chaplains. The Difference team have worked closely with prison chaplains who have run the course and leaders in prison ministry, ensuring that both those who run it and those who participate are able to get the most out of it. The course has been piloted in a prisons context and has had a transformative impact on the lives of those who have taken part, enabling prison chaplaincy groups to consider new possibilities for forgiveness and reconciliation in relationships that had previously felt like a lost cause. One participant commented that the course felt like the closest thing to rehabilitation that he had experienced in prison. Each session includes films, scripture reading, prayer, discussion, and interactive exercises that guide participants on a journey towards better connections and healed relationships. The course is based on three habits – being curious, being present, and reimagining – which, if practised, help participants encounter others well and see society transformed. Training for running the Difference course in prisons is being offered to attendees at an Anglican prison chaplaincy training event this week, with over 100 chaplains in attendance. Prison chaplains of any denomination can also get trained online through the Difference website. Speaking about the new resource, Archbishop Justin Welby said: “I am delighted to have launched this new version of the Difference course for prisons. Prison chaplains play a crucial role in the life of our Church and the rehabilitation and discipleship of prisoners. It is a privilege to serve their ministry through the Difference course. The way we treat people in prisons is a key measure of our civilisation as a society. In providing the Difference course, we want to say wholeheartedly 'you matter '. It is our hope that the course equips prisoners with new habits that enable the reconciliation made available through Jesus Christ to flow out of them into their wider relationships. Having visited a prison whilst the course is being run, I have seen first-hand its potential for creating new possibilities of forgiveness, dialogue and reconciliation.” The Rt Revd Rachel Treweek, Bishop of Gloucester and Anglican Bishop for HM Prisons in England and Wales, has added her support for the Difference course: “Reconciliation is at the heart of God’s love, and followers of Jesus Christ are called to join in with God’s mission of reconciliation. The Difference course provides an opportunity to explore what it means to live reconciliation amid the struggles and joys of our everyday lives, and this contextualised course for prisons will enable people to explore new possibilities for transformation in relationships with other people, God and Self amid the messiness of life.”A prison chaplain who ran the Difference course said: “For us as hosts, it’s very exciting when you see things start to click with people as the course goes on. Recently a participant spoke about a person in his life who he fought with every time he saw him, often leading to violence. He wanted to do things differently but he just didn’t know how. “As the course went on he started to put into practice the habit of being curious, asking questions that would allow him to find out more about this other person’s life and why the situation was the way that it was. It was beautiful to see him think about this stuff and process it between the sessions, and we’re really hopeful that he’ll be able to have a different relationship with this person going forward.”
Retirement is the start of a fresh chapter for many, offering a new lease of life to travel the world, pursue hobbies, hang out with the grandchildren or, for a growing band of people, join the priesthood.Retired city workers, head teachers and police officers are being fast-tracked into the clergy to bring a “lifetime of work experience” to rural churches and share the load with overstretched vicars.It is hoped that up to 8,000 Church of England worshippers in their late fifties, sixties or seventies, particularly those with managerial experience from their careers and a track record of serving as church wardens or lay ministers, could be tempted to train as priests to serve in their local parish after retirement.People are not usually put forward for ordination after the age of 55, and very rarely after 65. The retirement age for clergy is 70 and the selection and training process can take up to five years.A pilot scheme has reduced this to a single year, working with St Mellitus theological college in London and with the blessing of bishops. One priest, a former partner at the consulting company Accenture, aged 67, has already been ordained. Ten others, including a former boarding school headmistress, a retired police constable and a dressmaker — all in their mid or late sixties — are in training. There are aims to sign up 100 for the next academic year.Thousands of churches no longer have their own dedicated vicar. Some priests have 20 or more parishes under their care, reliant on teams of assistant priests, retired clergy and lay parishioners to hold services across large areas.Critics have said that restoring a system of “one-priest-per-church” would boost congregations by forming closer bonds between communities and their vicars. The new “Caleb” scheme aims to find new priests for parishes from within their congregations. They will be “self-supporting” priests, who are not paid a stipend and do not need a vicarage as they already live locally.The Rev Nicky Gumbel, 67, is stepping down after 17 years as vicar of Holy Trinity, Brompton (HTB), in southwest London, which boasts more than 4,000 worshippers across its six sites. It is one of the most successful Anglican churches and has a network of 127 churches around England that it has “planted” or revitalised.Gumbel turned Alpha, the course designed to convert the curious to Christianity and which counts the Archbishop of Canterbury as an alumnus, into a global phenomenon and is now championing the “Caleb stream”, run by the HTB-founded Church Revitalisation Trust and named after the biblical figure who still felt strong enough to prove his worth at 85.Speaking to The Times for his farewell interview and before the Global Alpha Leadership Conference this week, he said there were about half a million Anglican churchgoers aged between 55 and 72. With life expectancy now in the eighties, many want to pursue a new passion in retirement.“They’ve been involved in church all their life, some are licensed lay ministers, lay chaplains, church wardens, some are just dedicated church people,” he said. “How hard would it be to find 8,000 who would give 25 years for free after they’ve left life in the city or police force?”Those who feel called to the priesthood discuss it with their priest before embarking on a series of interviews. The usual selection process can last for up to two years, ending with a bishop recommending them for ordination. They then spend two or three years at theological college before being ordained as a deacon and then a priest.Under the Caleb scheme, candidates can start a one-year training course immediately with the local bishop’s blessing and have interviews as they train. Gumbel aims to sign up more theological colleges.About 580 people start training as Anglican priests each year, at an average age of 43.Linde Melhuish, 66, was headmistress of a boarding school and a lay minister and wanted to be a priest, but a bishop was “adamant” that she was too old, she said.She heard about the Caleb project last August and will be ordained 11 months later, this July, in Hereford Cathedral.“I was a head teacher for seven years and had been in management of schools before that, so had lots of experience that was transferable,” she said. She will return to serve in her home parish in Herefordshire where eight churches share one stipendiary priest. “The whole idea [is] to help churches in rural areas who are under tremendous strain.”The Rev Anthony Goddard, 67, is the first Caleb graduate. He was ordained last June and is a curate at his parish in West Sussex. He spent 20 years working for ICI and four years as a partner at Accenture.“Most people at around 60 have a lot of life experience, a lot of professional experience quite possibly in leadership roles, and hopefully have a good track record of Christian ministry,” he said. “ I spent 25 years in business and then 13 as head and [lay] chaplain of an independent school and was always actively involved in the church.“The vision is to put thousands of ‘Calebs’ like me into these multi-parish benefices to share the load with the incumbent [priest].”
The Archbishop of York is to make a pilgrimage on foot from Manchester Cathedral.Archbishop Stephen Cottrell is visiting Manchester and Salford on Thursday 5 May to mark the 600th anniversary of Manchester Cathedral and to make a pilgrimage on foot through Salford to MediaCity. He will stop off at various points along the way to see something of the variety of life in Salford, to find out about the challenges and innovations in this diverse area and to pray for the people he meets.In his first visit to Manchester and Salford since becoming Archbishop of York in 2020, Archbishop Stephen is keen to meet people from different walks of life and to hear about some of the interesting projects and ministries taking place here. Having undertaken several walking pilgrimages, including twice walking the Camino to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, he will experience the different sides to Salford: seeing first hand some of the social challenges and the enterprise that has transformed the city in recent years with the arrival of MediaCity UK. At the end of his visit Archbishop Stephen will visit the offices of the BBC and mingle with media at an evening reception.Speaking of his visit Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York, said: “I haven’t been able to get out and about much since I became Archbishop of York nearly two years ago so I’m really looking forward to being in Manchester, celebrating the 600th anniversary of the cathedral and then taking a walk through Salford. Meeting local people who are bringing change and transformation to lives and communities is always encouraging and I’ll be taking time with Bishop David to pray for this work and those it helps as we walk.”The Bishop of Manchester, Dr David Walker, said:“I’m delighted to be accompanying Archbishop Stephen on his pilgrimage through Salford. I look forward to deepening my own understanding of how this vibrant city is making the most of its present opportunities whilst not neglecting its challenges. It will be a privilege for us to hold the people of the city and their work before God in prayer.”The Archbishop’s itinerary on Thursday 5 May includes visiting the Volition project; St Philip’s Church - the first Resource Church in the Diocese of Manchester; Salford Lads Club, and the Salford Foundation, an organisation working on issues that affect women, including crime and domestic abuse, and with young people connected to serious violence.
CATHEDRALS across England and Wales are opening their doors free of charge after hours as part of a nationwide campaign “Cathedrals at Night”, co-ordinated by the Association of English Cathedrals. Delayed from 2020 by the pandemic, the project is the first of its kind to bring together cathedrals in England and Wales as well as Westminster Abbey. Lichfield and Wells cathedrals will host an event on 13 May; Bristol, Coventry, Derby, Ely, Exeter, Gloucester, Hereford, Lincoln, St German’s Cathedral Isle of Man, Portsmouth, Salisbury (online only), York Minster, and St Davids are due to open after hours on 14 May. Bradford, Chelmsford, Durham, Liverpool, Peterborough, St Edmundsbury, and Worcester Cathedrals will offer events throughout the year. It has been inspired by Les Nuits des Cathédrales, first launched in European cathedrals in 2008.
