Photo: A group for those with dementia and their carers at Christ Church, Chislehurst
This year marks 10 years since the first Anna Chaplain, former broadcaster Debbie Thrower, joined the staff team at BRF Ministries with the aim to grow a national network of Anna Chaplains.
A pioneering ministry that works with older people, Anna Chaplaincy aims to equip churches to better support these members of their congregations and communities, and to ensure their spiritual and pastoral needs are met. It also supports those with dementia and their carers to ensure they are made welcome in our churches.
Rochester and Canterbury Dioceses were the first to embrace Anna Chaplaincy as a diocesan ministry and have been building teams across Kent since the first group was commissioned in 2017.
To celebrate this milestone, and to raise further awareness of the range of Anna Chaplaincy taking place across the diocese, Julia Burton Jones, Anna Chaplaincy Lead and Dementia Specialist for Rochester and Canterbury Dioceses, is setting out on '10 for 10’ challenge in September.
Photo: Julia Burton-Jones, Anna Chaplaincy Lead for Rochester and Canterbury Dioceses
There are currently 60 Anna Chaplains plus many Anna Friends and other volunteers working with them. The challenge will see Julia visit 10 Anna Chaplains across Kent, and walking with them in the places where they serve.
Julia says,
"I felt this would be a good way to honour the wonderful work of Anna Chaplains and reflect my role in walking side by side with them in their ministry.’
Her walk has been inspired by a sponsored walk that BRF Ministries Lead for Anna Chaplaincy, Debbie Ducille, is also undertaking during September from Alton, where Anna Chaplaincy was born, to Abingdon where BRF is based.
Called ‘Walking Side by Side’, it aims to reflect the essence of Anna Chaplaincy in accompanying older people in their spiritual lives.
On her travels, Julia will find out about ageing in different parts of Kent, and how spiritual care is being offered through the Anna Chaplains churches commission to reach out to local older people whether or not they have a faith.
"I hope to celebrate the commitment of the team, and encourage others to join us, perhaps through signing up for my next online course which begins in October.
"I also aim to raise much-needed funds for BRF Ministries which has been so generous over 10 years in helping churches develop their seniors ministry."
Julia's already made her first stop by visiting the Rev Anne Bourne, from St Luke’s Sevenoaks, who was among the first Anna Chaplains commissioned in Rochester Diocese in 2017.
Her interest in this ministry was sparked by caring for her dad through his vascular dementia.
Anne was a member of the diocesan steering group formed in 2015 to launch Anna Chaplaincy and is now Tonbridge Archdeaconry Lead for Anna Chaplaincy.
Her congregation is ageing and while many remain fit and active in their 80s and 90s, others live with the challenges of long-term conditions. She supports parishioners who need full-time care and are placed many miles from home and the relatives who care for them.
The regular services Anne leads in local care homes (including Emily Jackson House, which is just behind St Luke’s) are a highlight of her ministry. She would love for others to join her, sensing it would help reduce the common fears over long-term care.
Anne says,
‘We don’t realise how much older people we support will be an encouragement and a blessing to us. Like the couple I visit in a care home whose welcome feels like being greeted as a family member. And a 100-year-old resident who provides piano accompaniment in one of the homes where I lead services.’
It will be possible to follow the rest of Julia's journey on the Diocese of Rochester's Facebook page via a series of blogs she will be posting or read them below.
A special evensong at Rochester Cathedral on Sunday 15 September at 3.15pm will also mark the anniversary.
- Find out more about Anna Chaplaincy in the Diocese of Rochester
- To support the walks being undertaken by Debbie and Julia and donate to BRF Ministries, click here
10 for 10 blogs
Margaret Hollands from Hoo St Werburgh was among the first Anna Chaplains commissioned in Rochester Diocese in 2017. Caring for her dad who had dementia made her aware of how little support was available to families.
Margaret was a member of the diocesan steering group formed in 2015 to launch Anna Chaplaincy and is now Rochester Archdeaconry Lead for Anna Chaplaincy. In 2015 she and Julia travelled together to Alton to meet with pioneer Anna Chaplain Debbie Thrower and co-ordinator Alex Burn as the diocese began a fruitful partnership with BRF Ministries. Margaret reflects:
‘Having been "in at the beginning" of Rochester's journey, it is so positive to see where we are now & how far we have come from those tentative early days.’
Margaret leads a monthly Companion Café, takes Home Communion to housebound older people and has a ministry at the local care home, Yew Tree Lodge. Funeral ministry has become a vital part of Margaret’s role in Hoo.
She conducts between 25 and 30 funerals each year and notices that older people often say ‘I don’t come to church but I do believe’; she senses that something about approaching the end of your life draws you to the Christian way of seeing death.
Being in a village means informal support for older people from the community is strong, but many feel cut off as a result of limited public transport on the Hoo Peninsula.
Margaret adds:
‘Walking alongside people when they are at their very lowest, for me it’s the most important part of my ministry.’
Angela Scott from Christ Church Chislehurst was commissioned Anna Chaplain in 2017 but has been involved in ministry among older people for a quarter of a century.
She remembers the first Holiday at Home at Christ Church some 25 years ago and an older woman saying, ‘Thank you for organising something in August. I feel so lonely in August.’
Photo shows Julia Burton-Jones (left) and Angela Scott (right)
Angela’s Anna Chaplaincy responsibilities at Christ Church (alongside Anna Friend Gill Holt) include the regular dementia-inclusive Friendship Café and the community lunch.
She takes home communion to older people living in their own homes and care homes. A key focus in recent years has been the Life Group she organises for older women.
It has grown to over 20 members and now meets at the church centre on Wednesday mornings.
For 16 years Angela served on the Church of England’s General Synod. In 2019 she spoke to a motion about Anna Chaplaincy which she presented first to Bromley deanery, then Rochester Diocesan Synod, before finally being heard at General Synod in York.
Angela urged other dioceses to work with BRF and is delighted five years later that a third of Anglican dioceses in England and Wales now have Anna Chaplaincy, with a further third working towards this goal!
Walking through the countryside alongside Kyd Brook, Angela spoke of the sadness of being alongside older friends as their health declines, and her grief when they die.
Some want to die and ask her to pray death will come soon.
Following the sudden death of a dear friend in the Life Group just days before the walk, Angela turned to poetry to make sense of the situation, writing a lament in the style of a Psalm:
Why Lord, Why?
I have a friend who’s tired of living.
She longs to die.
I had a friend with much to live for.
She sadly died.
God, you got it wrong! I’m so confused.
help me to understand.
Give peace and comfort to my living friend:
who still longs to die.
Give peace and comfort to those who grieve
my friend who lives no more.
Give me insight into your eternal hope and plan,
but why Lord, why?
You whisper: ‘Why not, for you must understand
their time is in my hands.’
Angela Scott
September 2024
John and Kim Curle were commissioned Anna Chaplains in Cudham and Downe benefice in 2023 but have a rich history of ministry with older people. Kim looks back to the work she did with older people when she worked for London City Mission over 25 years ago.
In several previous places, Kim and John have organised activities like Holiday at Home for older people.
John and Kim’s ministry has included many roles working with children, young people and families, so they bring a natural skill and passion for intergenerational work to their Anna Chaplaincy.
Photo: John and Kim (left) are joined by Julia (centre) and David and Ann-Marie Jefferys (right)
In organising Warm Welcome events in Cudham and Downe, they invite children from the local primary schools where they run weekly assemblies to entertain guests; they see the connections this enables between young and old in the villages as deeply meaningful.
Kim and John run a monthly informal all age café church in St Katharine’s chapel in Cudham. ‘It’s lovely to see how people of all ages can come alongside each other and worship God through creativity, talk around tables, friendship, hearing God’s word, and praying in a relaxed environment where all are welcome.’
Julia, John and Kim were joined by Bromley Mayor and Mayoress David and Ann-Marie Jefferys, keen to hear about developments in Anna Chaplaincy. David has chosen Alzheimer’s Research UK as one of the charities he is supporting in his mayoral year and is affirming of Anna Chaplaincy’s focus on the spiritual needs of people affected by dementia. Ann-Marie and David are licensed lay ministers St Mary’s Shortlands.
The Rev Mandy Brown is Anna Chaplain in East Dartford Benefice.
Mandy was commissioned in 2024, having retired to East Dartford (where she grew up) after serving 10 years as parish priest in Bishop Stortford. Her time in full-time parish ministry followed a career as nurse and care home manager in Kent.
Photo: Julia (left) and Mandy (centre) meet with care home manager Demi (right), at The Bridge
Julia and Mandy walked the streets around St Alban’s in the Old Town, before driving to the Bridge and Fleet estates, calling in on the new Bridge Care Home, and finishing at The Living Well in Temple Hill.
She spoke to Julia about the challenges of ministry in a parish of 28,000 with high levels of deprivation and the disconnect between discrete housing areas and the two churches, especially given the benefice is divided by the M25 motorway.
Reflecting on her hopes for this ministry, Mandy said:
Anna Chaplaincy is in its embryonic stage. Key challenges are to develop a presence within the communities we serve, to build a team, and to reach older people, many of whom are not on the internet.