Part-time preachers helping to keep keep Shropshire's churches open
A retired nurse turned priest is among an army of part-time preachers helping to keep church doors open by working for free or on a reduced wage.
The Rev Sally Day, is a self-supporting ordained local minister, based at St Andrew's Church, in Shifnal, where she leads services including blessings and funerals as part of a team also serving Sheriffhales and Tong.
Ordained by the Church of England 10 years ago, she does the same role as a fully paid vicar or minister, after working for many years as a registered nurse caring for children in hospitals and at a children’s hospice trust.
The denomination has seen the number of self-supporting priests rise from 2,091 in 2002 to 3,230 in 2016, with worshippers from all walks of life from plumbers to doctors taking up preaching roles accounting for one in six of all clergy.
A Lichfield diocese spokesman said: “Self-supporting ministers are a wonderful and generous group of people and a great gift to the church. They receive the same quality of training as stipendiary or ‘paid’ clergy and freely give their time to parishes.
"They often have other roles in society which means that, alongside their priestly calling, they may maintain their ‘everyday’ experience that is vital in relating to many people today.
“We are proactively exploring new patterns of leadership and ministry for a changing church. It has an excellent record of developing new vocations and currently has around 90 people exploring routes into lay or ordained ministry.
"Earlier this year 22 new curates were ordained – including five in non-stipendiary roles - reflecting this growing interest.”
Rev Day, aged 74, said: "Ministry in the name of Jesus is a calling, a vocation, and for me it is to share something that has been a deeply held belief ever since I remember.
"It was a feeling that I did not understand as a child or respond to in any real sense over my working life, but the signs of the way the love of God worked in the lives of people in the darkest days of their lives made a great impression on me.
"When I retired and moved to Shropshire I started to look for a church community that I felt comfortable to be a part of, and the place I found was St Andrew’s Church in Shifnal, where we were welcomed with open arms to an outdoor pet service, and then every subsequent Sunday service.
"Becoming part of the community of St Andrew’s allowed me to listen to the call I felt God was making on my life, and I started a formal training process that lasted years until I was ordained as a self-supporting minister."
