The Waterways Chaplaincy Team on the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads is delighted to announce the appointment as Probationary Waterways Chaplains, Pete and Tricia from Eastgate Ministries in Thrigby. They join Angie Baldwin and Mike Cadman in the Team which has been operational since March 2020.
The venture into the Broads was a new initiative, as is very much a holiday area and unlike the canals has no locks. But it is surprising how lives revolve around the Broads rivers. There are lots of liveaboards, both who move from mooring to mooring and those who live in the marinas, with the numbers growing all the time.
All chaplains cover the whole of the Broads but have regular places to patrol. You will find Pete and Tricia, at Oulton Broad or maybe having a picnic on a river’s edge, Angie at Upton and Brundall and Mike at Loddon and Stalham.
The team continue to be grateful to the Broads Authority and ‘Broads Beat’ for referring people for help at times and are glad to be involved with them in making the Broads a better place. Their ministry involves everything from directing holiday makers and helping cruiser hirers to moor up to taking the water hose to their boats, directing people to the shops, and listening to the bereaved. Outboard motors have been taken for repair, bus passes and letters delivered, and some good chats have happened over the odd cup of coffee taken to the boat.
The team get to know the fisherman especially in the quiet season when they are out enjoying the fresh air and hopefully catching fish, but also meet those with real concerns for whom they can provide a listening ear and sometimes assistance as to how to get an issue resolved.
If anyone is in the Broads area, you will see the Chaplains in their gilets, with Waterways Chaplain in big letters on the back. Please feel free to say hello, they would love to chat to you and if they can help, they will.