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News From ‘CARL’ I
thought I would drop you a letter about the donation that Little Malvern Priory
makes to the Agricultural and Rural Chaplaincy committee. As
you know, initially it was used to fund the Go West project, and setting that
project up has been a significant piece of work. You will also know that it has
now reached a stage where it has been able to attract a sizeable grant from
Heritage Lottery Fund, and the project is doing significant work with the launch
of “listening posts” in six churches this summer. As
you will recall, a couple of years ago, we widened what we would spend your
donation on to include tourism projects across the diocese, and we were able to
work with churches to establish the Wilden to Witley trail, and having funds
meant it was possible to bring in some Defra funding to that project. However,
at a recent CARL meeting we decided to take a different direction and to use the
money to support two different but related pieces of work. The
first is extending chaplaincy to the livestock market. Even though all farmers
do not use livestock markets, Worcester market is still an important focus for
those in the agricultural industry. Currently chaplaincy to the market occurs
when I manage to get there, roughly a couple of times a month. We plan to extend
chaplaincy by recruiting a team of chaplaincy volunteers so that the team is
present at every market. We will shortly be recruiting and training team
members. Obviously those volunteers need to have their expenses met and there
may be cost in providing appropriate training. The intention is to use some of
the money for those costs. The
second area (that complements that work) is to re-launch a re-established county
based Rural Support Group. There had been such a group in the county that did
excellent work during Foot and Mouth. Subsequently the county group became
amalgamated with a West Midlands regional group and unfortunately there was a
falling out between the county group and the regional group. That
has meant that the work the regional has done in this county has been pretty
ineffectual. I have long had the view that the region would, in due course,
collapse under the weight of its own bureaucracy. That has finally happened and
the regional network is ceasing operations from the end of this month. I am
convinced that there is a need for a reformed, reinvigorated county group and I
believe that (with the region having disappeared) there is an appetite locally
for that to happen. The intention is to promote that service through the
extended chaplaincy at the market. In Lincolnshire (where this is done) last
year they had 60 new cases where their county group gave help. That compares
with this county where we were running at less than one new case a month. Clearly this
work too needs funds for volunteer expenses, training costs, publicity
materials, and insurance. So this
letter is firstly to thank Little Malvern Priory for the help you have given
over the years. Secondly it is to ask for your continued support, not just the
financial support, but your continued prayers and interest in the work. Are
there members of Little Malvern Priory that might be interested in being part of
the chaplaincy team to the Market or being part of the newly re-forming county
rural support group? With best
wishes and thanks to you and your congregation, Robert Barlow
http://www.cofe-worcester.org.uk/doc_lib/CARLnewslettersummer2009.pdf The White
House, Ankerdine Hill, Kniightwick, Worcester WR6 5PR |
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