Dear clergy colleagues,
I wanted to update you on how the bishop’s office is now working and how you can best get in touch with us. I hope that we can help you know who the right person is to help with any queries, and how correspondence and other paperwork is handled.
Elaine Joseland has joined us as my executive assistant. Elaine has sight of my inbox, diary, and files, and is the person to contact about any diary invitations.
Tully Chant has joined us as our office, finance, and admin manager. Tully manages the finances for the bishop’s working account (which come from the Church Commissioners and pays for local staff costs, expenses, hospitality, and aspects of caring for the bishop’s house). She is also taking on managing all of our electronic and paper filing, data privacy and security, and helping us to have good systems for the proper handling and, when appropriate, deletion of the information we hold. She supports the planning of events at the bishop’s house, and has access to my diary.
Elaine and Tully will both be mainly in the bishop’s office and occasionally at the St Nicholas Centre. You can contact them via email – elaine.joseland@cofesuffolk.org, tully.chant@cofesuffolk.org, or via telephone on 01473 252829.
Alan and Catherine Forsdike continue in their job-share role as chaplains. They are the first point of contact for arranging permissions to officiate, licences, and references for clergy roles (CCSLs). They are also responsible for booking and planning services that I am invited to. They have all the information needed — service templates etc., — to help you to plan, and for us to agree orders of service for licensing, confirmations, and other services. Their preparation work with you on this helps me to know what I am expecting when I come to a service and to prepare as well as possible for it. It is a little daunting when everything is so new — so please help me to find my feet by working with my chaplains on this. They have sight of my diary and inbox and can also be contacted via bishops.chaplain@cofesuffolk.org
Please use my regular inbox for all emails: bishop.joanne@cofesuffolk.org I read all of my emails and try to reply promptly to as many as possible. I am very behind at the moment —we have had over 5000 emails since I started in November, and a few hundred diary invitations. If we owe you a reply, apologies and please bear with me: we will get there.
Please also send any Ministerial Development Review correspondence to that inbox. I will read it myself from there. You should be aware that MDR correspondence is also seen by Tully, who will make sure that it is properly and securely saved and filed on your clergy HR file.
Please note that you no longer need to ask for my permission to invite visiting clergy from other dioceses to your benefice. What you now need to do is check on the National Register of Clergy to ensure that they are in good standing, and then satisfy yourself that they have an in-date DBS and appropriate, in-date, level of safeguarding training. You might like to save a screen shot or copy of correspondence to document that you have done this. If you have any concerns, please contact the chaplains.
Permission for clergy to minister from within the Anglican Communion, but outside of the Church of England / Wales, is a different system. You need to check with the chaplains who will handle this for you.
In respect of clergy from other denominations, assurance needs to be sought from the minister’s authorizing body that they are in good standing and up to date with DBS checks and safeguarding training. There are different levels of permission depending on what they are being asked to do: some things can be done without consultation or permission, others require consultation with the PCC and the permission of the bishop. Again, please liaise with the chaplains in these circumstances.
I will be in touch soon — please forgive the flurry of letters! — about arrangements for this year’s Chrism Eucharist at the Cathedral and a few others matters. But I hope that this is helpful for now to know how things are running here and how best to get in touch.
It has been lovely to have so many letters and emails of welcome and encouragement and invitations to visit various parishes, BMOs, chaplaincies, schools, and community partnerships.
Thank you.
