Watford Town Centre Chaplaincy

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In the beginning....

Watford Town Centre Chaplaincy Logo

Rev. John Aldis

St Mary's Watford, Trustee WTCC

Background

Watford is a town of about 80,000 inhabitants, but it is also a regional centre for retail, business, and entertainment. Its location provides ideal access, being within 3 miles of 6 motorway junctions, and having excellent train and underground links to London. The town is also close to Heathrow and Luton airports.

Three million people live within 30 minutes drive of Watford, and the Harlequin Shopping Centre draws over 17 million shoppers a year. In addition, between 10 and 15 thousand young people descend on the High Street on Thursday to Sunday evenings for entertainment.

These factors mean that the town centre has many roles. It includes the town hall, entertainment areas including night clubs and the theatre, shops including the Harlequin Centre (which alone has over 4000 employees) and businesses. Recently a Town Centre Partnership has been established, made up of the major interests in the town; the partnership aims to work for the development of the town centre.

St Mary's Church is the ancient parish church of Watford; set in the central square on the High Street the church's parish is the town centre. Over the last few years the church has been able to build on its active role in the town. The removal of shops from in front of St Mary's made the church visible in the centre of the town. And the appointment of the Vicar as a Director of the Town Centre Partnership indicated the welcome provided by the leaders of the town centre, including the elected Mayor. During this time the churches of Watford have also grown closer together in understanding and ministry. Christians Across Watford, which co-ordinates 43 churches, has as its mission statement "Learning to be one Church in the Town and for the Town".

Town Centre Chaplaincy

The idea of forming a Town Centre Chaplaincy was first proposed by the Vicar of St Mary's, Rev John Aldis, in September 2002. Three meetings of Church leaders were held in the Harlequin Centre to explore the development of this idea; the leaders represent a wide diversity of churches including Roman Catholic, Pentecostal, Anglicans, Methodists and Salvation Army. It was clear from the beginning that no one church could undertake the project on its own, that the project should be ecumenical and owned by the churches of Watford, that the project should be based on St Mary's Church but be independent of it, and that there should be a full time paid Chaplain who would lead and develop this work.

How We Developed

Special events were held in the High Street especially at the time of the major Christian festivals. These included free gift-wrapping in the Harlequin Centre in the run up to Christmas, carol services and Sunday afternoon concerts. A Town Centre Chaplaincy Steering Group was established to lead forward the work. Visits to other Town Centre Chaplaincies were undertaken to learn from their experience. A part time Project Manager was appointed and an office set up. Wider bodies of denominations and sector ministries were consulted. Many of the churches across Watford promised their support in prayer, involvement and finance. Application for WTCC to become an independent Charitable Trust was submitted to the Charity Commissioners in 2003 and we were registered as a charity in December of that year.

Richard Chewter was appointed as the first Watford Town Centre Chaplain, and took up the post at the beginning of November 2004.

History

What is Chaplaincy?

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