Church and Community Support
Samuel Pedlar is our Church and Community Support Adviser, working in the Church Buildings Team. In his role as a buildings support officer, Samuel gives targeted support to individual churches - and those who love them, care for them, and use them. Samuel works alongside Holly Robinson, who focuses on fundraising and fabric, whereas Samuel works to support the PCCs to build their projects, and people resources so that they be sustainable, have manpower to carry our projects, reach out their community and make sure each church is well cared for and future proofed.
Samuel can be found to be:
- Working with PCCs to do community consultation and engagement initiatives, including helping with questionnaires/surveys, meetings, and events.
- Supporting PCCs to build organisational sustainability.
- Helping PCCs to consider and implement new models of governance.
- Supporting the creation of Friends/Action Groups.
- Advising on projects and working alongside our HCBSO to help to build towards grant bids.
- Connecting PCCs with experts and stakeholder in the Diocese, in their communities, and in partner organisations.
- Planning and running training events for PCCs and Friends Groups.
- Working with partner organisations (e.g. the Cambridgeshire Historic Churches Trust) to develop new projects.
- Supporting the creation and running of our Church Building Management Partnership project.
The churches that Samuel usually works with are recommended by committees (e.g. the DAC and Church Uses Committee), the archdeacons and or rural deans, and Diocesan colleagues. This may be because they have a small PCC, problems with the fabric of their church, or generally would like help and advice. Samuel also always welcomes contact from individual churches, by emailing samuel.pedlar@elydiocese.org.
Friends and Festival Church Conference
On Monday 30 September 2024, the Church Buildings Department and Association of Festival Churches jointly hosted the ‘Friends and Festival Church Conference’ at St Mary’s Church in Ely. The goal of this conference was:
- To provide training and information about Festival Churches, and help churches to discern whether they should become one themselves.
- To hear more about the work of Friends Groups in our Diocese, and create opportunities for PCCs to understand how and why to start one for themselves.
- To afford Friends Group and Festival Church members the opportunity to meet together, network, and exchange stories, advice, and guidance.
- To continue our commitment of supporting PCC/Friends Groups efforts to widen their organisational sustainability and engagement/support from their parish community.
Read a report of the conference, written by our Church and Community Support Adviser, Samuel Pedlar.
Each of our speakers contributed to the event and made sure that the conference heard different voices, different perspectives, and important personal stories and reflections that all in attendance could learn from and apply to their own disciplines. Listed below are the speakers, along with links to some of the presentations from the conference:
- Ven. Richard Harlow - Archdeacon of Huntingdon and Wisbech
- Nigel Mills - Association of Festival Churches, Development Officer
- Revd. Andrew Whitehead - St Peter’s, Haveringland (Festival Church)
- Gavin Cameron - Rampton Action Group, All Saints’ Rampton (Festival Church)
- David Knight - Head of Church Buildings, Church of England
- Revd. Paul Hutchinson - St Mary’s, St Neots
- Pat Robinson - Friends of the Painted Church, All Saints’ Cambridge (CCT)
- Alan Draper - Friends of St John the Baptist, Somersham
- Kate Jackson - Friends of St Clements, Outwell
- Caroline Lewis - Friends of St Peter and St Paul, Alconbury