Faith Features

Roger Greene often describes himself as 'not very religious', which may be surprising as he is a Methodist Minister spending half his time at chapels in the St Just area, and the other half in the community. One of Cornwall's Agriculture Chaplains for many years, after a spell 'up country' he returned to Cornwall last September.

He supports staff and customers at Land's End Airport and also workers at Warren's Bakery in St Just

"For me it's the Church getting involved in ordinary day to day life rather than always just being inside a Chapel, but particularly its about showing the world at large that the Church is interested, offering pastoral support for people; sometimes it's just a friendly face and a conversation, sometimes it could be a lot deeper, maybe a personal problem that may need counselling.

"Regarding the airport chaplaincy obviously there are times when there are emergencies, there may be passengers or family who need to see a friendly face while staff are busy doing other things, and generally its good to know what the general routine is.

"Some passengers might be anxious about flying. It concerns me that if there was an emergency, someone dying suddenly say on the mainland, you could get a relative flying over from Scilly, distraught and in a hurry needing to talk things through before shooting up country to see their family. But for staff its all the other problems that people have; divorce, illness or whatever."

Roger has his finger in many pies! He also ministers to workers at the bakery in St Just, making sure he arrives there after work is done but before people clock off. Alan Jobling is the general manager:

"Roger asked if we minded if he sat in one of the tearooms and listened to people and we had no objections. I feel it can be an advantage to people, especially in this day and age with the stresses and strains of what's going on in the world.

"Obviously whatever they say to Roger is confidential and I'm not aware of any of the conversations that have gone on. I think it's a very good thing and I've even been in to talk to Roger myself and just have a chat and it can ease the pain sometimes.

The Christian Networking Fellowship in Cornwall was created to allow businessmen to meet regularly and share their faith and concerns. Mike Kevern from the group says he's increasingly hearing from managers worried about making tough decisions regarding redundancies and restructuring for the good of the business and says sometimes managers' faith also struggles during economic downturns.

Industry is not the only area to attract Chaplains. The emergency services, hospitals and even some football clubs all use the services of local clergy.