10 April 2024
Methodists are passionate about social justice, often going above and beyond to help their communities through activities such as youth groups, community cafés, food and clothes banks to name but a few. Yet who cares for those working long hours to make their community, their church and the world a better place?
In the Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly Methodist District, the chair, the Revd Loraine Mellor funded a wellbeing officer for a two-year project to help the Cornwall team. She remembers, "During my previous tenure in the Nottingham and Derby Methodist District, one of the best things I did was appointing a wellbeing officer. I learned a lot about helping, supporting and encouraging ministers and staff in their vocations.”
Seeing the benefits of having a well-being officer, Loraine wanted to have one in Cornwall to support people and to develop a wellbeing policy for the district. “The idea is to enable people to have good wellbeing practices. It is important as we have so many ministers who feel stretched and overworked,” she adds.
Tracey Collins started her position in September and is educating people on caring for themselves and others. Discussions within the team started immediately about how they felt it was part of the Methodist Church ethos to take care of each other and how best this could be nurtured.
One of Tracey’s biggest challenges is getting people in the district to step back and care for themselves. “We see the urgency with our ministers and the lay staff exhausted. It is difficult for ministers because many don't see what they're doing as work,” explains Tracey.
Tracy and the team see caring for the wellbeing of the district as a part of the Methodist Way of Life. “We want to show how biblical wellbeing is and how social justice and the Methodist Way of Life dovetail into a wellbeing strategy,” says Tracey.
Wellbeing is about how people treat each other. It is about compassion for others as well as ourselves. “As a Church, we want to look after people, but we hope to get people to look after themselves and not to feel guilty about it. Wellbeing is biblical as God looks after our whole being and therefore we need to embrace it,” concludes Tracey.