Chaplaincy

FCG Chaplaincy Hub Offer for all Chaplains - Nourishing Roots with Paul Rochester

Join us for a day of reflection and spiritual renewal with the Free Churches Group, led by Bp. Paul Rochester, held in the beautiful and peaceful surrounds of the Royal Foundation of St Katherine, London on Tuesday 10th October 2023 from 10 am to 4 pm.

Paul is the General Secretary of the Free Churches Group and an ordained minister in the Church of God of Prophecy where his is a Senior Pastor for a Church in South London and has regional oversight for eight churches. Paul wrote his MA Dissertation on silence and Pentecostalism.

The day will include refreshments on arrival, mid-morning, and mid-afternoon as well as a hot buffet lunch.

Registration will be from 9.30am onward for a 10.00am start.

The cost for the day will be £20 for FCG chaplains, with a small number of places available for non-FCG chaplains from September.

Register your place here.

For more information, please contact Mark Newitt at mark.newitt@freechurches.org.uk

Visit here for more events.

Photo courtesy by Royal Foundation of St Katherine.

Free Churches Group, Health and Social Care Chaplains Study Day

Moral Injury, Staff Support and Looking After Ourselves

Free Churches Group, Health and Social Care Chaplains Study Day

27 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9HH

Tuesday June 20th 10:30 to 15:30

Cost: £15 for chaplains whose denomination is a member of the Free Churches Group

 £25 for all other chaplains

Please register your place HERE.

09:45 doors open

10:30 to 11:15 Session one – Introduction to Moral Injury [Katie]

11:25 to 1210 Session two – Supporting Health and Social care staff to Navigate their way Through MI. [Diana]

12:10 to 13:05 Lunch (provided)

13:10 to 13:50 Session three – How we set up staff support work at G&ST [Tracy]

13:55 to 14:40 Session four – Sharing Good Practice [input from the panel and attendees]

15:00 to 15:30 Session five –Self-care and Creative Reflection [Bob]

15:30 cake and conversation for those who want to stay for a little bit extra

The focus of the day will very much be about lived experience rather than academic discussion. A well as the examples that the presenters will share we want to draw on the knowledge of those attending so please do think about examples of good practice from your context that you’d be happy to share in session four. If you have questions you’d like to ask both the presenter and those attending you can email them in advance to Mark at mark.newitt@freechurches.org.uk

A CPD certificate for 4 hours will be available at the end of the day.

Presenter Biographies

Tracy Morgan is originally from New Zealand. She trained as a health care chaplain in 2018 and works at Guy's & St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. First working in Paediatrics and acute adults, Tracy joined the dedicated staff support chaplaincy team that was formed in response to the Covid 19 pandemic in November 2021.

Diana Steadman worked in education and guidance before training in pastoral ministry at Spurgeon’s College. She is currently serving as Staff Wellbeing Chaplain at Kingston Hospital NHS Trust where from 2017 she has been establishing the role working alongside a Physiotherapist, Clinical Psychologist and Mind-Body Practitioner as part of an in-house Staff Wellbeing Team. Diana is now responsible for creatively supporting and advocating for the pastoral needs of staff within Unplanned Care, harnessing the tools of reflective practice, pastoral supervision, coaching and other development activities, and by reporting into divisional progress and Trust-wide steering group meetings.

Katie Watson is Head of Chaplaincy at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. She has served there for 15 years. Prior to this she was a Military Police Officer in the British Army with operational experience in Bosnia and Croatia during the early 90s and Northern Ireland during the conflict. She runs ultra distance trails and does so that cake can be a major factor in her diet.

Bob Whorton is retired from Healthcare Chaplaincy but continues to work as a reflective supervisor. His interests are in creativity, writing, embodiment and the use of the imagination.

Note: If you are a Free Church Healthcare Chaplain, please contact Thandar at thandar.tun@freechurches.org.uk for a discounted price. The member denominations list is available to view here.

Photo by Dim Hou on Unsplash

Baptist Chaplains Day

Book your place on our online day for Baptist chaplains
Monday 17 April 2023

I am really looking forward to our chaplains' day on Monday 17 April and I hope to 'meet' many of you online that day!

You can now register. As last year, there will be three standalone sessions, each one on Zoom and lasting approximately 1 hour 45 minutes. They will start at 10am, 2pm and 7pm. You are welcome to register for one, two, or all three sessions. 

(If this button doesn't work, please copy and paste this link into your browser:  https://www.baptist.org.uk/Articles/622117/A_Day_for.aspx)

Those who have registered will be sent joining details and Zoom links in the week before the event. 

Please do pass on the details or forward this email to anyone you know in your network who may be interested. The day is free and is for anyone within Baptists Together who acts as a chaplain in any capacity, regardless of accreditation status, hours spent each week in chaplaincy, or sector (or who maybe thinking about becoming a chaplain.) 

Our keynote speaker is Revd Dr Mark Newitt, the Free Churches Secretary for Healthcare Chaplaincy and part of the chaplaincy team at both a hospital and a hospice in Sheffield. Mark's theme is Ritual and Liturgy in Everyday Encounters. Mark will help us define what ritual and liturgy is and isn't, and then explore how formal and informal ritual and liturgy provides one way of responding to pastoral, spiritual and religious need. 

The day will be structured as follows:

  • 1000-1145 Session 1. Some reflective worship led by the Eastern Baptist Association regional team; a video-story from a chaplain; an interview with Diane Watts, BUGB Faith and Society Team Leader; and then a chance to meet, encourage and pray for other chaplains from your own sector in breakout rooms.

  • 1400-1545 Session 2. Worship led once more by the EBA regional team; a second video-story from a chaplain, and then Mark's keynote address on Ritual and Liturgy in Everyday Encounters.

  • 1900-2045 Session 3. One final act of worship and one final video-story; followed by a panel and breakout rooms to delve more deeply into the subject opened up for us by Mark Newitt in the afternoon.     


I do hope you will be able to join us. However, if you are no longer involved in chaplaincy and would like to stop receiving communication from the Ministries Team about chaplaincy, please let me know by emailing ministries@baptist.org.uk 

On behalf of the Baptists Together Chaplaincy Forum,

Grace and peace,


Tim Fergusson
Ministries Team Co-leader
tfergusson@baptist.org.uk

A bit of Chaplaincy on the Side, a webinar exploring part-time chaplaincy

Monday 5th December from 18:30 to 20:00

Tickets are free and available from Eventbrite here.

Part-time chaplaincy roles come in many shapes and sizes. They may be:

  • inherited as part of a church posting

  • be carried out as a distinct role separate from church ministry

  • a role held alongside secular employment

Whether you are working part-time as a chaplain, would be interested in doing so, or know someone who should consider doing so(!) this webinar will explore how a part-time chaplaincy role can complement, inspire and inform other roles and areas of work and look at some of the pathways to becoming a chaplain.

With input from

  • The Revd Canon Helen Cameron: Chair of the Methodist Northampton District and Moderator of the Free Church Group

  • Gary Hopkins: Methodist Ministry Development Officer for Chaplaincy

  • Suzanne Nockels: Congregational Church Minister and Chaplain at Sheffield Children’s Hospital

  • Tas Cooper, Quaker Chaplain at Oxford University and a freelance Spanish to English translator

  • Bob Wilson: Secretary for Prison Chaplaincy and Free Churches Faith Advisor and chaplain at HMP Wayland

  • Mark Newitt: Secretary for Healthcare Chaplaincy and part of the chaplaincy teams at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals and St Luke’s Hospice

The event flyer is available to download here.

Image by Gundula Vogel from Pixabay