College Chaplain

The Role and the Department

Our Chaplain will lead in the provision of pastoral, spiritual and religious support to all members of the College community and to support staff and students of all faiths, beliefs and worldviews. They will be involved in a wide range of activities aimed at furthering the College and University strategy, especially in relation to the personal development of students and the future development of the Colleges. They will work closely with the student support team within the College in partnership with the Student Support and Wellbeing Directorate. The Chaplain is a member of the University’s Chaplaincy Network which provides a community of practice led by the University Lead Chaplain. Our Chaplain will be line-managed by the College Principal.

We envisage that the Chaplain will continue our tradition of officiating at two services a week during term time – Wednesday evensong and Sunday Eucharist – in addition to our Christmas Carol Service. Remembrance Sunday, The Sounding of the Retreat, and, as may be needed, weddings, funerals and christenings associated with the wider College community. We expect our Chaplain to be available to welcome students on arrival to College and join us for formals, graduation and matriculation.

These services and events would normally take place in our College Chapel. This is a very fine, listed, Art Deco Chapel. The College is also home to the Joachim Room, the former Chapel of St Hilds College. However, for the next three years we expect to be operating the chapel as a place of worship, its choir, both in the context of religious service and other performance and activities, from a local parish church in Durham city near College’s temporary home at Rushford Court. During this time the College will be being refurbished and developed. The Chaplain will be involved in ensuring that renovation and development of the Chapel meets our current and future needs including helping to generate proposals for grant funding to restore, enhance and develop the Chapel and Chaplaincy.

It is anticipated that these activities will require around half of the Chaplain’s time.

The other half is to be dedicated to supporting the educational, scholarly and personal development of our students and staff by playing a leading role in enabling their contribution to the benefit we can make as a College to our wider community. This is an important part of our character as the College which instigated the foundation of Student Community Action in Durham – the precursor to the present organisation supporting volunteering. The Chaplain will do this by supporting our ambitions around volunteering, building on relationships which we have with local schools and prisons through the Chapel Choir, and creating new opportunities for engagement with the local community, its groups and individuals. We have plans to invest in community gardening, music making and other activities which the Chaplain will support.

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