The Living in Love and Faith project was commissioned for the Church of England by the House of Bishops in 2017, to enable churches across the country to participate in a process of learning and praying together as part of discerning a way forward in relation to matters of identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage.
Find out more at churchofengland.org
Following the release of the draft Prayers of Love and Faith from the Church of England in early 2023, we have identified four chaplains to offer pastoral support. Their brief ‘bios’ below might give you a sense of which, if any, might be best placed to help you. Feel free to email the dedicated email address for each one – you can do this in complete confidence. The four are:
The Revd Tracey Morris (PLF.Support1@sheffield.anglican.org)
Tracey was ordained priest in Sept 2020 whilst serving her curacy at St Luke’s LEP in Lodge Moor and she is now the Priest-in Charge and Oversight Minister for St Columba’s Anglican Church and Stephen Hill Methodist Church in Crosspool, Sheffield. These two churches are now in a covenant relationship where they worship together every Sunday, and although the community is made up of two denominations with differing views, the community is united in their passion for embracing diversity and inclusivity, whilst respecting difference and learning to disagree well. Before ordination Tracey spent time in several different roles, from administration in church and the public sector to supporting the homeless and marginalised in Sheffield. She is married to a hospital doctor, and they have a teenage daughter and a crazy little spaniel called Molly. Tracey knows from experience how important it is to be able to talk through things when times are difficult, confusing, frustrating or upsetting. She offers to give a listening ear and space to pray, whether it’s sitting with a coffee in person or on zoom, meeting at a cafe, or going for a walk.
The Revd Captain Canon Mike Reeder (PLF.Support2@sheffield.anglican.org)
Mike was commissioned as a Church Army Evangelist in 1987 and worked in Northern Ireland. His ministry has been predominantly within heath care Chaplaincy in Norwich and Sheffield but he has also served on the Staff of the Church Army Training College in Sheffield and on the staff of Christ Church Fulwood. He has served in different ways in the Dioceses of Sheffield since 1995 and was ordained in 2009. He is now the Senior Chaplain at St Luke’s Hospice in Sheffield a post he has held for some sixteen years. In thirty-six years of full time Lay and Ordained chaplaincy ministry Mike has been privileged to walk alongside people of many differing beliefs, lifestyles and backgrounds. His own Christian life has been shaped within a Conservative Evangelical context, though he continues to be informed by the people who invite him to walk with them for a period of time. That engagement often comes at times of great personal change from within and without. He feels he can offer a listening ear and the opportunity to reflect and when asked to pray together, all from within a safe space for us both.
The Ven Peter Rouch (PLF.Support@sheffield.anglican.org)
Peter was ordained in 1999 after 10 years working for Barclays Bank and three years at Westcott House. He served his curacy in Southwark Diocese after which he was a Research Fellow at St Stephen’s House, and Chaplain to St John’s College, Oxford. A period as Priest in Charge of two parishes, and a Circuit Minister for the Methodist Church, in inner-urban Manchester, was followed by appointment as Archdeacon of Bournemouth in the Diocese of Winchester where Peter was one of the elected clergy members of General Synod. Leaving Winchester, Peter worked as a consultant to Lambeth Palace on the Transforming Effectiveness programme, and also as Head of the Secretariat of the National Church Institutions which, amongst other things, organises the sessions of General Synod and the meetings of the House of Bishops. Since May 2021 Peter has served as CEO of Church Army UK & Ireland. He relishes the missional orientation of the organisation, its emphasis on the works and the words of the Gospel, the diversity of its people and work, and the deeply people-positive character of its culture. Despite the glories of the institutional Church, which he values, Peter would also observe that at times he has taken significant knocks through his ministry in the CofE, and also appreciates the way that his current role allows him to stand slightly to one side of the Church’s organisational processes. Peter is married to Tracey. They have two grown up daughters, Rebecca and Kezia, and a bouncy Brittany Spaniel called Jaffa. Their household is completed by Alina and Mark who are refugees from the war in Ukraine, and they both love it when their house is awash with people from the wider Ukrainian community in Sheffield. Peter and Tracey worship at St Mary’s Bramhall Lane, and Peter offers occasional ministry elsewhere, including at St Mark’s, Broomhill in Sheffield.
The Revd Jane Truman (PLF.Support4@sheffield.anglican.org)
Jane worked for 12 years as a primary teacher before ordination in 2003. Since then she has mainly been working in education and training across a rich variety of ministries including evangelists, Readers, clergy, pastoral workers, and children’s ministers. A significant part of this has been walking alongside individuals, offering a safe, supportive and confidential place for them to think aloud, process, wrestle and think through some of the challenges and difficulties (as well as the joys) that life and the church brings their way. Her work has brought her into close contact with people across traditions and expressions of the Church of England, and has given her a deep respect for its variety and an appreciation of the dynamics involved in belonging to a broad church. Jane has recently taken up a new role as part time Assistant Director of Vocations in our Diocese and alongside this she is closely involved in her local church’s foodbank in north Sheffield, as well as offering Spiritual Accompaniment. She lives on her own and so works hard at maintaining and enjoying important friendships, as well as trying to wrestle an overgrown garden into touch.
Resources
The Church of England have provided resources to help churches study and pray together. Find out more
Living in Love and Faith Learning Hub – a five-session video-based course
Diocesan Living in Love and Faith Advocates
A team of advocates has been assembled, to enable and mobilise engagement with LLF across the Diocese. They are the Revd Sibylle Batten, the Revd Rob Bridgewater, Mrs Toni-Lee Mair and the Revd Canon Ian Smith. Together they represent a vital diversity of theological viewpoint and lived experience, Diocesan geography and ministerial responsibility.
Details of advocate role
In taking on this advocacy role they are being asked to:
- assist the Diocese in mobilising as full and healthy an engagement with the LLF resources as possible: it is advocacy in engagement which they have agreed to take on;
- model the sort of respectful and kind interaction which we hope to encourage across the Diocese and across difference;
- be channels of communication between our Diocese and the LLF co-ordinating group and vice versa.
They are not being asked to:
- advocate for any particular theological viewpoint, or any particular ‘outcome’ to the engagement process;
- put themselves in the firing line in debate or controversy;
- suppress their own convictions about human identity, sexuality, marriage and relationships, to take a neutral stance in the process.