Roots and Wings

Annual Report 2008

The Team
The Team dynamics are very much the same as last year but the challenges that they have faced have varied on a week-to-week basis.
Senior Chaplain The Rev’d Fr. Kevin Ball
Chaplains: The Rev’d Terry Simms, The Rev’d Kennedy Bedford,
Pastor Tony Powell and Moulana Faruk Ali.
Administrator. Miss Stephanie Akroyd.

Our Service Provision
We provide a pastoral, spiritual and humanitarian service to all who work at or travel through Manchester Airport and beyond.
Our new logo encapsulates this new ethos that we have brought in to ensure we continue to conform to the Charity Commissioners.
We are service partners with UK Borders Agency and Group 4 Security in provision of Chaplaincy Service to the new Detention Centre “Pennine House”. This has been a formalisation of the arrangements that had been in place for some time but needed to be regularised. The drop in sessions are run by Kennedy at Pennine House two mornings a week. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office in provision of repatriation of British Citizens who have had problems abroad, or are returning from Forced Marriages or similar issues. Also dealing with human remains coming back into the country with the pastoral issue of dealing with the bereaved family.
The Ministry of Defence, a new service provision in respect of repatriation of those coming back into the UK through Manchester Airport for compassionate reasons.
Greater Manchester Police Terry Simms is now the authorised chaplain to the Airport Section of the GMP and this has continued to strengthen the relationship we have with them.
Training for the new Traffic Police Community Support Officers which are now stationed at the Airport was provided during their initial training course.
We continue to work in partnership with Manchester City Council and other local authorities as requested in respect of faith and pastoral care issues.
The Senior Chaplain is a member of the voluntary agencies and faith sub group of the North West Resilience Forum meeting with Government Office North West on a regular basis. He represents Blackpool, Liverpool and Manchester Airports.
This year has also seen the Chaplaincy working in partnership with the City Council initiative on Domestic Violence and Forced Marriages also advising on flu pandemic issues.

Pastoral Care and Assistance
This year the Chaplains have responded to requests for assistance to provide help for staff and passengers on numerous occasions.
This continues to be one of the main roles of the Chaplains at the Airport. The issues involved have been family related, bereavements of staff, dealing with people dying on flights into Manchester and their families, staff on board those flights and serious accidents.
There has been interaction between Chaplains and staff in relation to job insecurity, through most of the companies at the airport.
These of course are the dramatic incidents in which the Chaplains are involved and that many people know about.
The huge amount of day to day pastoral work done by the team with staff and visitors who bring so many personal difficulties and problems with them to work or on their journeys tends to go by un noticed. It would not be appropriate to list these contacts due to the confidential nature of the work but it is correct to say that the time that people are spending with the team is very much appreciated. That feedback comes from those involved and others who have known of a chaplaincy involvement with someone.
Spiritual Assistance
The provision of daily prayer services and special services have continued in the Terminal Prayer Rooms.
There has been consultation with many faiths and the provision for people travelling on pilgrimage has been consistent with attendance given to both Christian and Islamic pilgrimages. Terry travelled on one Pilgrimage to Lourdes and Faruk made a Hajj pilgrimage.
The Chaplaincy has been consulted in relation to prayer rooms in the new NATS unit at Prestwick, a new Prayer Room facility in Covent Garden and at Birmingham New Street Rail Station.
The new Chaplaincy logo and prayer room symbol have been brought in to all the Group Airports along with identity badges for all of the members of the Chaplaincy groups and Care Teams. This has given a new sense of identity to the Chaplaincy in the group airports.

The Lambeth Conference
The Chaplaincy team were pleased to be involved in the welcoming of participants in The Lambeth Conference who came to the Northern Province for hospitality prior to the conference.
This resulted in the team working in excess of double their normal working schedules in order to achieve a satisfactory conclusion to the task. A letter of thanks was received from The Archbishop of Canterbury for the work that had taken place.
Many church leaders came into the airport to collect colleagues and were impressed by the Chaplains and the provision of Chaplaincy services. The Senior Chaplains of Gatwick and Manchester attended a Garden Party in the presence of HM The Queen at Buckingham Palace along with participants of the Lambeth Conference and also Lunch at Lambeth Palace with the Archbishops.

The Airport Care Team and Manchester Immigration Detainee Support Team
The Airport Care Team come under the day-to-day running of the chaplaincy and the team of volunteers assist the chaplaincy in their pastoral work.
MIDST come under the umbrella of the Chaplaincy from the days of the previous senior chaplain. The Chaplaincy team felt that if this was to continue then the members of MIDST should come under similar conditions to the Care Team. In view of this they are being required to undergo enhanced CRB checks.

Training
The Chaplaincy continues in its training role in assisting with Emergency Planning Training, Diversity Training, and New Employee Training. The Senior Chaplain is now involved in training at the Islamic Institute and this year completed training with Manchester College through the Union in relation to Diversity and other subjects. There has also been an invitation for him to lecture at the University of Utrecht on Chaplaincy and Multi faith response to Government. Terry and Kennedy have also received important IT training to assist them with their presentations skills for The Chaplaincy.

Conclusion
This has been a year which has seen The Chaplaincy develop greatly its pastoral role within the provision of the airports ‘customer first’ initiative, in cohesion with Human Resources in provision of initiatives for staff and the chaplains from the other Airports in the Group.
This gives us a firm base to build upon these new relationships in the years to come and hopefully at the new airports that Manchester Airport Group adds to its portfolio.

We continue to be grateful for the support we receive from the Dioceses of Salford, Manchester, Shrewsbury and Chester the Manchester and Stockport District. Manchester Airport Group, Alpha Retail, Manchester Airport, Select Service Partners, Nuance, UKBA and G4S, The Foreign and Commonwealth Office and The Ministry of Defence.

Police Dog and Handler with Senior Chaplain