Published on: 06/10/2026
At the end of September we held our annual Diocesan Celebration of Lay Ministries service, this time in Sheffield Cathedral with Bishop Leah. It is a service which does exactly what it says on the tin – we gather to celebrate the many different forms of lay ministry we have within our churches, particularly those people who have completed a course or some form of training in the last year.
We welcomed and licensed two new readers who had recently completed two years of theological study at St Hild College. We celebrated with our first cohort of our Funeral Ministry training course, 6 of whom were admitted to the office of lay worker in the Church of England and licensed as Lay Funeral Ministers in the Diocese. We rejoiced with the large group of people who have taken part in the Foundations course over the last year, as well as with two cohorts of participants in the Spiritual Growth and Transformation course. Recently authorised or re-authorised Focal Ministers were welcomed and blessed, and everyone present who was involved in any form of ministry, service or volunteering with their church was invited to re-commit themselves to God, shining as lights for Christ in the world.
It was an absolute joy to see the smiles on the faces of folks who had heard God’s call and followed him on a journey of learning and obedience, and it is right that we celebrate those who are starting out in a new season of service. But I wonder what it could look like if we continued to intentionally celebrate the ministry of others throughout the year?
Maybe through:
- Secret blessings – choosing someone in your church whose ministry or contribution might be overlooked or taken for granted, and blessing them anonymously in some way. This could look like leaving them some flowers on their doorstep, baking them their favourite cake for after church one Sunday, getting some people to sign a thank you card for them, etc.
- Profiling a different area of service/ministry each week in a Sunday service, getting those volunteers to the front to share about why they do what they do, praying for them and perhaps commissioning them for that ongoing role.
- Including the names of all lay ministers in your intercessions over the course of a month.
- Asking lay ministers to write something about their ministry for the parish magazine, or sharing a story of their ministry with the Diocese for our social media or Network magazine.
- Facilitating a ‘thank you’ meal – which doesn’t need to be expensive, but is an opportunity to gather teams of lay ministers or volunteers to have fellowship together and to thank them.
So much of our church life depends on the gifts, skills and service from lay people – ministry, governance, outreach, manual work, admin work and so much more. And it should be this way – we’re a body who needs every single body part in order to function and thrive and grow. Let’s be part of a culture of celebration and gratitude towards each other throughout the year; let’s remember to say thank you.
This week’s Blog post was written by Beth Burras, Lead Lay Ministry Enabler