News from Graham – a former PA

Graham Hains, who was Pastoral Assistant here at Holy Trinity last year, and now training for ordination writes….I am now back in Mirfield and have completed a week of a placement at Halifax Minster.

The Minster feels very strange. It seems not Parish nor Cathedral. Cannon Hilary Barber made a great effort to make everything as normal to me as possible. We had morning prayer daily together with the curate and Minster staff, a lunchtime Mass, and Evening Prayer. The purpose of the placement was for me to discover how important a church is to the local community. I had a tour of the whole area of Halifax, and a day with the local council and Mayor to see how the Church of England serves the community and helps the council to deliver services and discover those in need.

I did some home communion visits with the clergy, and went on a funeral visit. I feel it was sensitive and brave for a family to speak so openly about their loved one, faith, and how they feel. I then had an afternoon at the local Church of England private school which supplies many young people for the Minster choir. I was then invited to go for a day with a local mental health charity to discover what help those in times of trouble and worry can get from a charity. This gave me an opportunity to talk with the volunteers about their mental health problems, and how the pastoral help of the Minster, local church communities and clergy have helped them to find comfort and answers when nothing seems to make sense. 

I finished the week at the funeral directors, and heard about the links between them and local churches, who have helped them to give local people the send-off that is suitable and comforting for all family and friends.

Things are going well, and I have recently had a week studying the Living in Love and Faith course. I feel that the bishops’ announcement this week was all at this point they can do to encourage all to be accepting of all people with difference, and I hope that this will result in a growth of the love of God from all sectors of thecommunity.