The Diocesan Lay Group have prepared some more Chaplaincy User Guides on caring for our clergy, and share this update with us:

Last autumn, we published the first set of documents in a series of User Guides aimed at assisting Chaplaincies in checking if they are already doing all that should be expected – or are there holes to be filled. These covered ‘Preparing for a new Chaplain’, ‘Welcoming a new Chaplain and their family’ and ‘Understanding how we run our Chaplaincies’ as well as a general introduction.

The Bishops’ Staff Meeting has now endorsed a further two User Guides which have been prepared by the Lay Chairs (or equivalent) of our Archdeaconry/Deanery Synods supported and advised by a number of Diocesan laity and clergy. These provide guidance on chaplaincy accommodation & transport and on some general matters such as retreats and cluster groups. We have also updated the general introduction to include the links to these new guides. The introduction also now includes reference to the ‘Covenant for Clergy Care and Wellbeing’ which was made an ‘Act of Synod’ at the 2020 Group of Sessions of the General Synod and which was ‘proclaimed’ at the December 2020 meeting of the Diocesan Synod.

As before, the new User Guides are short and simple but the messages they embrace are essential to properly caring for our clergy. Oh, and please remember that ‘User Guides’ effectively set the norm that we should be striving for – if you can do better then brilliant!