Student Experiences – Alex Mayes: Summer Placement at Colwyn BaySeptember 23, 2010
Part of our ministerial training focuses on Parish placements and one of the best opportunities is the Summer Placement. It’s a whole month based in a Parish, completely immersed in the life and community there!! One of the many benefits of this is that you get a real feel for what goes on – warts and all! This year I spent the month in Colwyn Bay, a busy North Wales town parish, and experienced so much, putting into practice, things I have learned in college and also getting involved in things I have no experience of. I did sermons where the Vicar stood at the door at the end of the service armed with a Clipboard and asked the parishioners for comments. There were pastoral visits, which were great – getting treated to biscuits/cakes and coffee wherever I went! Baptism, Marriage preparation and Confirmation classes, all fascinating and all, to me, a great sign of God working within our church communities!
I spent two days working with an initiative to help the homeless and Drug/Alcohol addicted in the area. Advice Respite Care (ARC), along with the church, provided a full meal for people three times a week, with a view to expanding after the building work has been finished on the church. The people who used the service also had the opportunity to come in and speak to Social Services Representatives who also came in when requested. It was heartbreaking to hear some of the stories during those two days, but I also had a great laugh with both the users (joining them at their tables for lunch) and the volunteers. Such is this mission based church living out the Gospel!
I also spent a day with the local Undertakers, which was an eye opener, especially for me having never seen someone who had died. It was quite hard to start with but by the end of the day, I was most impressed with the professionalism of the staff there, to make sure people are treated with dignity. This was combined with a visit to the Crematorium, where I was given a guided tour of the back rooms etc. The day was exhausting but such a learning curve, especially when I was given some advice about how close the funeral services, work with the clergy and how it works best.
Other things I managed to pack into the month were; a day out at the beach for chips with the Youth Group (easy when the beach was literally a 5 minute walk away!) A day helping out the Parish Amateur Dramatics group serving the Interval teas, taking part in a Sung Evensong, making the error and learning rather quickly about how much communion wine is too much! Even a Civic Service with an invite to the Mayors Lunch after….Phew!!!!
I cannot stress enough how important this side of our training is, combined with our academic studies, it gives us the tools that we need as a springboard for our future vocations and for me, being part of those communities, even for a short time, is the icing of the cake, its where I feel SO blessed and where I feel a depth of Gods work in action. Fantastic!
Alex Mayes