Director of Calling Young Disciples, Ruth Walker, and Mission Enabler, Anne Batchelor,
have been working with Children’s Officer, Emma Pettifer, to deliver a series of training
sessions for grandparents keen to share their faith with their grandchildren.
Emma said: “The idea grew out of the resources I had been putting together for ‘Faith at
Home’. Ruth had had a few people asking if there was anything with grandparents and
so she and I got together with Anne who is a grandparent herself. The first session was
all about sharing the vision of Faith at Home, explaining how we can support parents
and grandparents to share their faith and each subsequent session developed as the
participants asked.”
Grandparents have come on the training course from Droitwich, Kidderminster and
Stourbridge – some have grandchildren living locally while others see them only rarely
– some are as far away as Australia. In a number of cases, the parents of the children
don’t have a faith themselves and the group has been looking at how to share the
grandparents’ faith in this context.
Comments from the participants included:
“It’s definitely given me some ideas of how I
can connect my faith with my grandchildren
– in particular I’ve started sending cards
through the post – I’m going to send an
Advent calendar this year!”
“I help with our Sunday School and am also
involved in the youth group, these children
often feel just like extended grandchildren.
I believe that the church needs to be ready
and open and it’s been great to have a
different group of people to meet with where
we can discuss ideas together.”
Please pray for all those who are grandparents throughout the Diocese, that they will
find ways to share their faith with their grandchildren
Kingswinford Deanery – Rural Dean: David Hoskin; Lay Chair: Anthony Lovesy
The Episcopal Church of South Sudan: Archbishop Justin Badi Arama