2003 Admitting and Commissioning – 3

“A First” for Irish Bishop with Church Army

For the first time in Church Army’s 121-year history, a Church of Ireland Bishop will preach at the service in Sheffield Cathedral (on Tuesday 8 July) when the Archbishop of York will admit 17 women and men, the highest number for nine years, to the Office of Evangelist in the Church. He is the Bishop of Kilmore, the Rt Rev Ken Clarke.

Captain Philip Johanson, Church Army Chief Secretary, said: “This is a most encouraging sign of our growing partnership with the Church of Ireland. We already have 24 Church Army Evangelists working there and Valerie Thom, a former hotel office manageress, will be joining other colleagues in the city when she shortly begins her ministry as Community Evangelist within the Upper Shankill Parishes in Belfast.”

For most of her working life Valerie was in office work of some kind or another. When a youth team went to Kenya to help in building work, she was able to offer her accounting skills to that project and found her “comfort zones” being challenged. She had 13 years as office manageress in one of the largest Cookstown hotels and also served in an electrical firm and an insurance company. She enjoyed working with the Mid Ulster Garden Centre in Maghera before moving to College three years ago.

The Sheffield occasion will be particularly poignant for Bishop Clarke as two first-year Church Army Evangelists-in-Training, Ruth Wisener and Brian Wisener, came from the Coleraine parishes the Bishop served as Rector before he was consecrated. They are cousins and will be in the congregation supporting their colleagues who are being sent out on their first posts.

Others to be Commissioned include Wendy Sanderson, to be Project Team Leader in establishing outreach work among the Cardiff nightclub culture and a member of Cardiff Central Team Ministry, and Andrew Taylor-Cook as Chaplain and Evangelist to the Deaf in the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich. Wendy was formerly a Concessions Manager with Faith Shoes near Oldham and Andrew Taylor-Cook used to be a voluntary worker with the Northumbria Deaf Mission.