Rev Anne Murray shares her thoughts on taking up the role of Self Supporting Ministry Advisor
A possible call to Ordination was suggested to me many years before it resonated. It was only when I recognised the more specific call to Self Supporting Ministry that I clearly sensed that God was calling me, not out of my work as a Physiotherapist, but to be an Ordained presence within that work, amongst patients and colleagues. I had no idea then, how many opportunities would arise for me to speak about faith and calling in a context where those conversations are so often prohibited.
Having trained on the Northern Ordination Course, I served my curacy at St John’s Fairfield and was then licensed as Associate Minister to St Mary’s Edge Hill (both churches would later become part of the then-new parish of All Saints Liverpool)
I have very recently taken early retirement from All Saints with a sense that God was calling me into something new. I now know that Sue (Fulford) having taken on a Stipendiary role, was sensing it was the right time to step down and I was privileged to be asked to take on this role.
I am particularly looking forward to getting to know more of my Self Supporting Ministry (SSM) colleagues across the Diocese and to hear about some of the joys and challenges they experience within their very different settings. I am hoping my own understanding will grow as we together explore Self Supporting Ministry with, very often, much of its time and focus spent within the world of work or outside the church’s normal places of influence.
The current conversations within the Church of England concerning the reduction in Stipendiary Clergy offer both challenge and opportunity for SSM’s, not only in the ways we are perceived by others, but also in the way we see ourselves.
I believe SSM’s play a hugely important role across the Diocese and, following on from Sue’s excellent leadership, my hope is that we can continue to facilitate those conversations that enable us, and our ministry, to flourish in whichever context we find ourselves.