Dartford news

Commissioning of chaplains in Dartford Town Centre

On Thursday 5th July six new Kent Workplace Mission chaplains were commissioned in a service held at The Meeting Place, The Orchards Shopping Centre in Dartford High Street.

The Meeting Place is a community space that is available to use for any community event in Dartford. As it is placed in one of the shopping centres in Dartford it was ideal for the commissioning service.

It was well attended by representatives from Dartford churches. We were pleased that the Mayor of Dartford, Cllr David Mote and his Mayoress Ellen and Cllr Ann Allen, vice-chair of Kent County Council were all able to attend and support this new venture. The Mayor said after the event, "it was a pleasure to attend your extremely successful event, which demonstrated true community spirit".

The service was led by Revd. Gary Colville, the Lead Chaplain for Kent Workplace Mission. This was a time of prayer and praise as well as the act of commissioning. The singing, though unaccompained, was an expression of our commitment and a celebration of our faith.

The Act of Commissioning was carried out by three Trustees of Kent Workplace Mission:

Revd. Carol Avery, a representative of the members of KWM,

Paul Buckley, a representative of the members of KWM, and

John Ellis, a representative of the United Reformed Church, an ecumenical partner in KWM

The chaplains were anointed and blessed by the Trustees as part of the commissioning.

After the commissioning we all shared lunch together:

a tasty finger buffett provided by Thames Gateway YMCA and some wonderful jollof rice to take away provided by the RCCG City of David church in Dartford.

The six new chaplains and guests after the commissioning

L to R

Julius, Kehinde, Cllr Ann, Ellen, Cllr David, Liz, Mary, Florence and Alexander