Celebrating the Licensing of Over 70 Lay Ministers News Archive

Celebrating the Licensing of Over 70 Lay Ministers

News
15 Oct 2024
Diocese of Winchester - Communications Team

The annual diocesan Lay-Licensing service took place at Winchester Cathedral on Saturday 12th October. In a beautiful service of praise and worship, 8 people from across the diocese became Licensed Lay Ministers and 5 Licensed Lay Workers, whilst 49 people received the Bishop’s Commission for Mission and 12 received the Bishop’s Permission to Preach. Hundreds of guests filled the Cathedral including family and church members to show their support. See below for a full list of all those licensed.

See all the wonderful photos here >>>

The service included a tribute to Jane Nicholson, the Parish Administrator at St Luke’s Sway, who was due to be licensed as an LMM, but who sadly died last week. Her daughter Laura received the blue scarf that would have been presented to her mother.

The service was led by Bishop of Winchester Philip Mounstephen and Bishop of Basingstoke David Williams, and certificates were presented by the Ven Jean Burgess, Archdeacon of Bournemouth.

It was a joy to see the incredible spirit and dedication shown at this service, and hear four powerful testimonies. It was a powerful moment of affirmation as we witnessed these leaders answering the call to serve in such a variety of gifting and contexts across the diocese. Their commitment strengthens our community, and we are excited to see how God will work through them in the days ahead. Let’s continue to support and pray for these wonderful ministers as they step into this new chapter of ministry!
Revd Dr Amy Roche, Head of Mission & Ministry

Among those receiving the BCM were Christina Cutler from All Saints in Mudeford, Dorset, who said: “It’s a very special moment. It’s the culmination of serving the Lord with all my heart and it means so much to me to be here to receive the blessing and commission and to receive the renewal of the Holy Spirit to continue building the Kingdom of God and bring others to his love.”

John Searles from Portway and Danebury was licensed as an LLM said: “What a wonderful service. It was very meaningful and with love for our missed colleague Jane Nicholson. I’m looking forward to long and fruitful ministry.”

We spoke to four of those licensed, Maggie Hatfield who completed BCM Worship, James Willett, who took the BCM Children, Families & Youth, as well as Beckie Denny and Nick Goulding, who both took the BPP course, about their experience of being called to their different routes and their experience of the course:

It was great that we learned about so many types of worship, and to explore what worship is and different styles and preferences. What joy the Lord must have when He sees us welcoming everyone to worship and praising Him. Worshipping from the heart is something so wonderful and sometimes for me it can be so overwhelmingly joyful and a deep sense of emotion, and I feel an intimate closeness to Him. It could be when I am reading the bible and in prayer at home or walking and seeing something in nature or a sunset. Or it could be in group worship.

Just glancing through my journal and noticing that we were given a feast of ideas, instructions and information on Leading worship from Andy, Chris, Angus and Will, so many helpful ideas to guide us with planning worship and the preparation and using music in the best possible way when leading. I have realised how much time, reading and research that goes into the preparation of a written talk, but nothing can be achieved without prayer and being led by the Holy Spirit.

When I was doing the course, I had moments of great joy and moments tears, I am not sure why, but we all had a great sense of the Holy Spirit working in us. I was very blessed by our course leaders and my lovely classmates. We came from very different backgrounds of churches, and we were at different stages of our journey but all working together and supporting one another. I notice since doing the BCM that I listened and read things with a new depth whether it is at home reading the word or in church or things I hear in passages or in hymns and songs. There is a new hunger in me and a quest to learn more.

For me participating in BCM Worship was a great privilege and all that I have learnt and shared will help me in my journey. I realise that I have much to read and learn, but I hope and pray that with guidance I can gain experience, and I know that my confidence is in the Lord, and I am so blessed that I have a supportive and encouraging Vicar and Benefice.

Thank you BCM Worship team for all you love and support.
Maggie Hatfield, BCM Worship

As the course began I looked forward to making connections with local children and youth leaders, speaking through challenges that we have faced and discuss how to overcome them. I hoped for some personal development through my own faith and through my ways of working with children, young people and managing volunteers in the church.

A quote from the first session was: Children, youth and family ministry ‘is the bedrock of the church. Passing on the baton of faith, the Blessing. But it takes an effective church to pass on a vibrant faith by growing young disciples who can be the spies in the land.’ I don’t think that the importance of children, youth and family ministry can be overstated. I pray I can grow St Andrew’s in this area. Anecdotally, I became a Christian at 15 and I have felt since that it is so important for children and teenagers to hear the gospel and know their intrinsic worth through being made in the image of God. During the second sessions, I found out that the statistics agree: the average age of first considering becoming a Christian, age of suddenly becoming a Christian and age at which a gradual conversion starts are all within the teenage years, mostly between 14 – 16. It is also comforting to hear that two thirds of conversions are gradual, so in our world of wanting instant results, most conversions take time and that takes some pressure off.

During my time on the BCM, I was also able to develop my insights in areas in advertising new groups and catering for neurodiversity in the church […] We discussed how to accommodate and engage children with special educational needs who may be on the ASD spectrum/neurodivergent. I had not been aware that there was already a representative for SEN at St Andrew’s as her role had not been very prominent. With her input, we have developed a families’ area, within the worship area at the church. There are sofas, colouring, and fidget toys which engage children and help families to feel more at home and comfortable as there is a decreased need for parents/carers to bring activities for their children. This was developed further through the Holiday Club which took place in August as there were several children whose parents had notified me that they had some special educational needs such as autism and ADHD and a couple who struggled with anxiety. It was also a very positive development to be able to share with parents/carers when they discussed with me how to accommodate and engage their child/ren. This was shown through a conversation I had with a Mum at the lunch on the final day. She told me that her son had been anxious about being left somewhere without a parent, but he did not look back once when he had been dropped off at Holiday Club. This was a wonderful encouragement to share with leaders at the end of the week.

Thank you again for all of your hard work in making the BCM possible.
James Willett, BCM Children, Families & Youth

I studied for the Bishop’s Permission to Preach in 2023/24 with Winchester School of Mission. I had entered into the formal discernment process for ordination and my incumbent at our church said that the BPP might be of interest and help to me as I worked out God’s calling on my life. The programme takes you through four modules of the Durham Common Awards scheme, including Introduction to Preaching, but also a module on studying the Bible and an introduction to spirituality and discipleship.

It was wonderful to travel the BPP journey with a cohort of other people from churches across the diocese. We bonded quickly as a group and enjoyed the in-person study as well as our regular Thursday evening lectures online.

The course was a great encouragement to me – not only was it helpful to begin to study Theology formally for the first time, but the preaching practice at my home church and mentorship from my personal tutor (Canon Marion de Quidt) were invaluable. One of the very helpful things that the diocese offers is a broad range of courses allowing you to step forwards in your calling, whether that is as a lay minister, or on the path to ordination. The BPP confirmed to me that God is calling me into a role in the church, it gave me confidence to continue through the discernment process and taught me how to write a theology essay!

The skills I have learned during the BPP course have equipped me to preach in a way that is rooted deeply in scripture as well as being engaging to the listener. I have now started my training for ordination and it feels like a very solid foundation on which to build upon.
Beckie Denny, Bishop’s Permission to Preach

I found the BPP course to be extremely helpful and valuable in so many ways. Although I had completed the BCM Worship course shortly before the start of the pandemic, I wanted to develop my ministry further, but realised that my biblical knowledge was very sketchy, being limited mainly to that gained from several years of lesson reading and an ‘O’ level GCE very many years ago.

The content of the BPP course was of much interest and has helped me towards a better understanding of the Bible and a fuller understanding of a passage from the huge range of written commentary available. Preparing and delivering sermons during the course was of course a challenging but immensely valuable experience.

Although the BPP training was certainly hard work, especially the written assessments, I have gained immeasurably from the experience and benefitted from the many opportunities to discuss matters both academic and social with fellow students and the training staff who were excellent. I am very glad to have had the opportunity to do the BPP which I believe has had a transformative effect on my ministry. I have also much enjoyed the friendships that have developed over the training year.
Nick Goulding, Bishop’s Permission to Preach