Contact us
Ministry Team contact information
Pastoral care contact information
Downloads
Leading Intercessions PowerPoint
Upcoming training →
- Grant Writing Workshop
16/01/2025 - Run the Race
11/01/2025 - Open the Gospel Learning Community
09/12/2024 - Open the Gospel Learning Community
02/12/2024 - Unconscious Bias Training
28/11/2024 - Open the Gospel Learning Community
25/11/2024 - Unconscious Bias Training
21/11/2024 - EcoChurch Resourcing: EcoChurch drop-in with sustainable heating demo
18/11/2024 - Open the Gospel Learning Community
18/11/2024
The diocese encourages and equips local churches to provide ministerial opportunities for lay people locally. This nurtures individuals, grows ministries and in the process enables parishes and benefices join in discernment and recognise a plan for mission and who might resource this.
Pastoral Assistants
Receive formal training before being commissioned to undertake pastoral care. The nature of this ministry is shaped by the local context and the gifts of the individual, it might include visiting, preparation for baptism and weddings, working with families.
Pastoral Assistants are able to relate with sensitivity to people, they are aware of the practical limitations of their role and skills, and can work with others involved in parish ministry. For more information click here.
Worship Leaders
Receive formal training before gaining permission to lead Services of the Word and all-age worship, usually where they worship on a regular basis. They become part of the ministry team, are enablers of ministry and can offer a Sunday service where otherwise there may not be one. Whilst they are not permitted to preach they are able to offer an alternative. Unlike Readers, they do not take funerals or take services of Public Worship with Communion by Extension. Register your interest for this course by clicking here.
Leading Intercessions
We have produced a downloadable guide which gives both theological background and practical advice for those leading intercessions in regular Sunday worship of various kinds. It is helpful for those beginning to lead intercessions for the first time and is a good refresher for those who have been leading intercessions for many years. It includes many tips including prayers at a service with children present and for different seasons of the church year.
It is ideal for parishes, benefices or deaneries to do together, although it could also be used by individuals. There is an accompanying PowerPoint presentation, ideal for group learning.
Growing a Healing Ministry
The ministry of healing and reconciliation is exercised in a wide variety of ways across the Diocese. Christians learn about the healing ministry and to apply what they learn in and through their local church. To know more about this ministry in the diocese click here.
For details of the training course click here.
Pastoral Care Training (delivered by the Accord team)
The diocesan Accord scheme provides training and encouragement in the skills needed to share the pastoral care work of a parish or benefice. The focus of courses is practical rather than theological, building on the gifts and skills people already have. Training is delivered locally by two trainers. Sessions are usually two hours with some courses requiring more than one session.
Courses are suitable for churches with established pastoral care teams looking to develop their skills further and for churches just getting going with a pastoral team.
Bookings / further info:
Pauline Godfrey
Head of Discipleship and Vocations, and Deputy Director
01452 835548
ku.gr1731696936o.coi1731696936dsolg1731696936@yerf1731696936dogp1731696936
Training is delivered locally on dates to suit those attending. Most courses can be offered either as three sessions of two hours, or as a one day course. Most courses are £5 per person (up to a maximum of £60).
Accord offers courses in:
This course can either be run as three sessions of two hours or as a one day course.
Topics covered include:
• The visiting needs of the people in your parish
• What helps and hinders our listening
• Gaining some experience of a visiting situation
• The working of a support group
• Where you, as a visitor, would need to ‘draw the line’
• What needs to be done before, during and after a visit
• Considering potentials problems
• Creating and maintaining a visiting scheme in your church
Feedback received:
‘Very helpful and informative sessions with useful handouts to look back at. It has made me want to become a visitor.’
‘The course has made me feel more confident about the role.’
‘Very professional and well-researched. Skilled facilitators with clear hands-on experience.’
‘This has been a very useful course to help us think outside of the box in terms of how we organise our visiting team. It has been good to hear other people’s examples of what they are doing in their parishes.’
‘The course has enabled us to get to know each other better as a team.’
To book a course, or for more information, please contact our Co-ordinator ↑
This course can either be run as three sessions of two hours or as a one day course.
Topics covered include:
• Normal grief behaviour and how we accommodate it
• Coping with other people’s grief
• The importance of listening
• The losses we experience in life
• The effect of the death on the bereaved family
• The ways children react to death and the help they might need
• Encountering difficult questions
• How a support person can help
• Your personal boundaries as a support person
• Preparing to visit
• Creating and maintaining a bereavement visiting scheme in your church
Feedback received:
‘The course has given me more confidence to visit and help those who are bereaved.’
‘Great facilitators, well led, very useful material, engaging and encouraging.’
‘The whole course was superb. It was relaxed and friendly which encouraged open and honest conversation. I have a much better insight into supporting the bereaved and I have lots of ideas to think about. I feel reassured that I can do this.’
‘The course was informative, confidence-building, easy to follow and encouraging.’
‘Very thoughtfully put together by equally thoughtful people.’
‘I would really recommend this course to others.’
To book a course, or for more information, please contact our Co-ordinator ↑
This is a short course of two hours and is suitable for established pastoral care teams or as a follow-on session for the Visiting and Befriending course.
Topics covered include:
• The range of emotions likely to be encountered in the dying person
• The reality of conversing with someone who is dying
• Responding to questions and faith issues that might be asked by the dying person
• Where, as the visitor, you can and should ‘draw the line’
• How best to leave things at the end of a visit
Feedback received:
‘I thoroughly felt this course was informative, constructive and very beneficial to me in my role as a pastoral care assistant.’
‘The course was helpful and thought-provoking. It was challenging yet encouraging.’
To book a course, or for more information, please contact our Co-ordinator ↑
This is a one-day course.
Topics covered include:
• The difference between listening and counselling
• What helps and hinders our listening
• Reflective listening
• The use of body language
• The importance of personal space and boundaries
• The dynamics of conversation
• Listening to a person who is confined to bed
• Coping with silence and with tears
• Identifying central issues when listening
To book a course, or for more information, please contact our Co-ordinator ↑
Marriage Preparation
We also offer a one-day Marriage Preparation course, however this course content is currently being reviewed. For further information please contact Ellie Griffiths-Edwards.
Topics covered include:
• How well you know each other
• The importance of family to you when you were growing up
• Coping with stress
• Anxieties and being honest about them
• Arguments and how best to resolve them
• The importance of compliments
• Coping with a smaller budget
• What’s important to you when bringing up children
