At St Benet’s we run a year-long placement scheme in which a student thinking about offering themselves for ordination can spend 12 months with us experiencing the life of a parish community. We form part of the North London Pastoral Assistants Scheme, and aim to provide the formational context that a young person needs to discern whether God is calling them to ordained ministry in the church.
The year-long placement here at St Benet’s involves our pastoral assistant receiving an immersive experience of parish life, whilst living in community with three other pastoral assistant students in St Paul’s Mission House in Camden Square. Along side parish duties, there is time set aside for theological formation, retreat, and reflection.
Four of the pastoral assistants who have been with us since the inception of the scheme in 2013 have gone on to train for ordination at St Stephen’s House, Oxford. Others have used the year to decide that God is not calling them to ordination at the moment, but to some other form of lay vocation.
Here are some pictures of pastoral assistants past and present showing the kinds of thing they get up to whilst working with us:
Hard work always forms part of our pastoral assistants’ time with us. Here is Tom Crowley (pastoral assistant 2014-15) re-painting our side chapel.
William Hamilton-Box (pastoral assistant 2015-16), heroically erecting scaffolding.
Euan Grant (pastoral assistant 2013-14), serving at the liturgy.
Euan Grant (pastoral assistant 2013-14) and Nick Archer (pastoral assistant 2013-14) serving at the liturgy.
Tom Crowley (pastoral assistant 2014-15) preparing our entrance way for re-painting.
Tom Crowley (pastoral assistant 2014-15) sanding down the church fence.
William Hamilton-Box (pastoral assistant 2015-16) with a group of pilgrims on our parish pilgrimage to Walsingham.
Sebastian Jones (this year’s pastoral assistant: back row; trilby) participating in our sponsored walk to Westminster Abbey.
Euan Grant, (Pastoral Assistant 2013-14) went on to return to theological study in order to pursue a doctorate in systematics at St Andrews University, and appeared in the 2017 season of University Challenge.
Nick Archer (pastoral assistant 2013-14) is now ordained and is serving his curacy at St Saviour’s Eastbourne.