St Edmund's Church is in the business of growing disciples. We provide a number of opportunities for people to explore the Christian faith.
St Edmund's Church Living Well: Growing Disciples
St Edmund's Church is in the business of growing disciples. We provide a number of opportunities for people to explore the Christian faith.
If you want to know more about being a Christian - click here.
Discipleship Home Groups
There are a number of Discipleship Home Groups around the life of St Edmund's. Either meeting weekly or monthly in homes or at the Living Well. Discipleship Home Groups have an important role in helping people feel part of the church. There are about 45 members of St Edmund's in some form of Discipleship Home Group. They are a great way to get to know a few people really well.
Discipleship Home Groups are the church in miniature.
In 2010-11 the groups are exploring knowing God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Click the image to open the Discipleship Home Group leaflet
If you want to be part of a Discipleship Home Group have a word with Bob Callaghan (01322 225335) email him or Ally Spreadbridge (01322 281838) or email her.
Confirmation and Renewal of Vows.
If you are interested in being confirmed let Bob Callaghan know by phoning 01322 255335.
Follow this link if you want more information about confirmation in the Church of England.
Click here to find out what it means to be an Anglican.
Calling and ministry in the church. 
As members of the church, we all have a contribution to make to society. Some people are trained and set aside to enable others to minister in both their local community and their place of work. God may be calling you to these or other ministries. The calling will be appropriate to your gifts and abilities and equally to do with God's purposes for creation.
You may feel that God is calling you to minister in one of the ways described in the section Ministry in the Church of England; explore these possibilities, but please do remember that all Christians are called to serve God with their gifts.
We are all, ultimately, in full-time service for God. Give yourself time to consider all this.
The Church of England has a site just for people who want to explore vocation a bit more - take a look by clicking on the logo on the left.
Within St Edmund's there are many ways to express your ministry and calling. As part of the Diocese of Rochester there are formal expressions of this as Pastoral Assistant, Reader or Evangelist, as well as ordained ministry.The Diocese regularly runs events to help people discern their vocation. If you would like to know more talk to Bob Callaghan or Ally Spreadbridge.
People exploring vocation and ministry
At St Edmund's people there are always people exploring vocation and ministry. In the autumn of 2007 Sharon Earl, Joyce Gibson and Pam Turley began their training as Pastoral Assistants. At the same time Nicola Earl begins training as a Reader with the army. Part of her training will be based here at St Edmund’s.
A number of others are continuing to explore their vocation. If you want to talk about how God may be calling you - have a word with Bob Callaghan or Ally Spreadbridge.
The Diocese provides regular opportunities to explore vocation and ministry. Click here to be taken to the vocation page on the Diocesan Website
'Arrival Days' are for anyone who wants to engage in a process that enables them to grow in the Christian faith and in their understanding of what it means to be a Christian.
The day is broken into four workshops which look at four questions: Where am I? Who am I? How do I learn? How do I worship?
An 'It's Your Calling Day' is the next step. This day is aimed at helping people explore the call of God in their own lives, through looking at biblical characters, the saints and ourselves. It will build on the work done at an Arrival Day and it will involve people participating in some group work, as well as personal reflection.
Details of current courses from Bob or Ally.
As you think about your ministry, you may find the following poems and prayers helpful:
Lord, you call us to be story-tellers:
planting your explosive news into our defended lives;
locating us in the script of your human history.
You call us to be trailblazers:
living in your future that we receive only as gift;
subverting the fixed, fated world of low horizons.
You call us to be weavers: tracing, stretching, connecting the knotted threads;
gathering up unravelling, disconnected lives.
You call us to be fools – for Christ’s sake:
bearing life’s absurdities and incongruities;
puncturing our seriousness and grandiosity.
You call us to be hosts:
welcomers of the sacred, intimate, transfiguring;
lavish celebrants of our communities and homecomings.
You call us to be poets: artists and illuminators of inner space; naming, invoking, heralding your ineffable presence.
You call us to be gardeners: sowers, cultivators, nurturers of fragile lives;
benefactors of your gratuitous harvest.
You call us to be conductors celebrating polyphony, coaxing symphony; orchestrating the praise of your inhabited creation;
Lord, you lavish gifts on all whom you call.
Strengthen and sustain us and all ministers of your church, that in the range and diversity of our vocation, we may be catalysts of your kingdom in the world, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Roger Spiller (1944– )
Father, I know you love me and have plans for me.
But sometimes I am overwhelmed by the thought of my future. Show me how to walk forward one day at a time. May I take heart while I search openly, learn all about the choices, listen to others for advice, and pay attention to my own feelings. By doing these things, may I hear your call to live a life that will let me love as only I can, and allow me to serve others with the special gifts you have given me. I ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen