AGRICULTURAL & RURAL CHAPLAINCY

 

SHERBORNE DEANERY

(Please read through - help is needed).

What is Agricultural & Rural Chaplaincy?

Sherborne Deanery organise a chaplaincy across in the market in Salisbury, which a number of farmers from this area go to. Also, we work in the Deanery, covering 41 parishes. We cover all this with just three chaplains.

Chaplaincy is about walking alongside people in the everyday ups and downs of life.  It is all about:

  • Being part of the fabric
  • Being available to all who are part of that community
  • Being immersed in everything that happens
  • Being a listening ear
  • Being a signpost where needed
  • Being a regular and predictable presence
  • Being a strategic presence
  • Being part of the ordinary so that if the extraordinary happens you are already there

We work in the market and in the Deanery, visiting farms and rural business and giving support where needed. Farming has the highest rate of male suicide of any profession and therefore needs support. The church really does get involved in this, in many cases just listening, but sometimes passing the case on to specialists, such as medical, financial, farming or matrimonial just to name a few.

Market Chaplaincy is about being that presence in the livestock markets. Market Chaplaincy is in many respects very little different in nature from other chaplaincies, except perhaps that its contact group is broader.  In a market the farmers, the dealers, the hauliers, the agents, the caterers, the vets and regulatory officers are as much part of the picture as the staff of the markets, and those who operate within them.  Through Market Chaplaincy, the team are reaching out far and wide into the very rural, often isolated, agricultural community by means of a central place where many fleetingly come and go, week by week.

However, all this takes some managing and finances are need in terms of travel. All our chaplains are not paid but need to claim travelling where appropriate.

 

We need your help.

 

There are two ways you can help us.

 

Firstly, online via Online Banking. Our details are:

Account Name:    Sherborne Deanery Synod

Sort Code:          60-19-12

Account No:                05518997

Reference:         Rural Chaplains

 

Or you could send a cheque, made payable to Sherborne Deanery Synod to:
Revd Richard Kirlew

The Rectory

Holwell

Sherborne

DT9 5LF

Telephone enquiries:   07966 754110

 

We really do need your help! Thank you.