Life Link Chaplain (Deanery)

What kind of personal and administrative support will the chaplain receive from the church/diocese. The PCC were whole-heartedly behind the project but anxious that it should be seen to be based on solid foundations.

• An already well developed young people’s team is working at St Mary’s.
• Line management will be through the Rector of Ross with the support of the Rural Dean.
• There is a small network of people working in similar roles at JKHS from other churches
• Partnering with LLCs in the two Hereford schools: Bishops and Hereford Academy
• Support from the Diocesan Intergenerational Missioner team (Lizzy Hackney) and Education team (Andrew Teale)
• Some admin support through the Ross Parishes administrator.
• Office space shared with St Mary’s team, access to printer and resources etc. 
• School will give them shared office space in the pastoral block and access to printing facilities etc there. 

You are suggesting that £281 from each parish would fund this, but will they all contribute?

Correct, the £281 is a simplistic approach to demonstrate that we’re actually not asking for much to make this wonderful project work (it equates to a coffee morning or two each year, perhaps, in each parish).

And no, not every parish will contribute so we are hoping that many will be able to commit to more than £281 per year. We are also urging parishes that do not feel able to make a central contribution to approach individuals in their patch who may wish to become “project angels.”

We need help to engage families locally and if we contribute, would we get help to run activities in our own parish?

Yes, but the most likely support an individual village church will receive will be through volunteers networking and working alongside the new LLC in some of their activity, particularly that part of it that is based in the churches / home / community. It’s obviously not going to be possible for the LLC to have impact by working “on site” in very many village locations. That will never build a critical mass of young people that will be one of the contributors to the project’s success. It would also be an impossibility in terms of hours in the week.

It is anticipated that the bulk of the LLC’s work at parish level will be in Ross (where there is a higher concentration of population and where young people gather) and at a couple of othercentres. That work will then have an impact back in individual churches. A key thing for any village would be to look for unique opportunities and attractions of their church / community and to tap into those, perhaps and even feed into the deanery.

Don’t forget that the LLC will be focussing on Young people, not just in church but where they are: in school, at home, in churches.

There is already a Christian team from Ross Baptist Church and other Churches in John Kyrle High School, apparently doing the same things as the LifeLink Chaplain you are suggesting.

It is the case that Ross Baptist Church and other churches are supporting John Kyrle High Schools through similar ministries. They are not covering the same sort of ground that is proposed by the Deanery project though, and it is only right that the Church of England should contribute too, and be represented at the school. This is also about building links with the Church of England. The project has been welcomed by the senior management at JKHS and we are already having discussion as to how this particular project will be shaped there.

At a time when many Parishes are finding it impossible to meet their Parish Offer why is it thought more important to fund this rather than helping struggling Parishes in the Deanery.

We’re tapping into money from the diocese that is earmarked for projects of a “missional” nature and are about church growth. The money can’t be used to support individual parishes. The LifeLink Chaplain project is about much broader brush strokes than individual parishes’ contributions through their diocesan share. You have, of course, identified another very real issue though, and that is being addressed though the Deanery consultation and pending reorganisation that will follow it. The new position we are proposing will help all churches in the deanery (where it overlaps with the catchment area of JKHS) to connect with children of secondary school age. This is a demographic that the Church, as a whole, needs to, and is actively striving to, attract – and by doing so has a very good chance of connecting with their parents’ generation (also sadly missing from many of our churches). 

It’s also worth noting that the diocesan funds from which we will benefit include the proceeds from the sale of land and property owned by Hereford Diocesan Board of Finance.

How do the costs for this post compare to those for a teacher?

The salary scale we have used in our calculations is that of a youth worker (commensurate with the two similar Hereford posts we have mentioned); it is considerably below the starting salary of a teacher. Of course, we have had to factor in much more than base salary costs (National Insurance, pension, transport, hiring rooms, resources, catering for events) which may make the remuneration seem higher than it really is.