Having spent 20 years in the computer industry I retrained for ministry in 1998 and after ordination in the Church of England in 2000 started parish ministry in a curacy post in the West Midlands. Ecumenism has always been important to me and although mainly an Anglican, I was recognised and regarded as a Methodist Minister shortly after ordination and went on circuit plan and took an active part in circuit and district business. During my curacy post I also became involved with chaplaincy, both with a local special needs school and a psycho-geriatric hospital. When I moved to Radcliffe in 2004, I continued my association with the Methodist Church and also with chaplaincy, this time with hospice work at Bury Hospice. In 2008 I began an ecumenical post in Wales, which was 20 hours a week in Nightingale House Hospice here in Wrexham and the rest of my time spent split between two churches in the village of Rhostyllen, one Anglican and one Presbyterian Church of Wales. This role has recently changed and I continue to spend 20 hours a week in the hospice, but now spend 15 hours a week as a Pastoral Care Chaplain at the Wrexham Maelor Hospital, continuing to be minister at Tabernacle PCW church in Rhostyllen. I also manage the parish nurse who operates within the Anglican team. Within my chaplaincy I am very interested in and supportive of the role of part time chaplains. Both hospice and hospital have good links with our local university and I am undertaking an MSc in Interdisciplinary Palliative Care, the focus of my dissertation being a pilot of a spiritual wellbeing assessment tool. My interests outside work include motorcycles and hill walking – that and bringing up two teenage daughters.
 |
