The Rev Godwin Chimara, Assistant Curate at St John the Evangelist and St James the Less, Aberdeen, writes:
Curates, Vocational Deacons and Lay Readers within the first three years of their deaconings or licensings, are said to be in Phase 2 of the Initial Ministerial Education or ‘IME2’. The responsibility for supporting IME2 ministers is shared by their Charges, Dioceses and the Province.
SEI offers support on the provincial level with a variety of offerings including a monthly gathering online via Zoom organised by the Rev Liz Crumlish, SEI’s IME2 Officer. Liz sets the tone for the gatherings around ‘gathering at the well’ as in John 4.14: ‘… but whoever drinks the water I will give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’ Liz provides an online space at these monthly get-togethers to share wisdom and stories, to pray for one another, and to encourage one another in formation and discernment.
On Thursday 15 February 2024, the guest speaker was the Rev Dr Anna-Claar Thomasson-Rosingh, SEI’s Director of Studies. Anna-Claar led the group to reflect on readings from St Mark’s Gospel in various contexts (past, present and in-between). It was a thought-provoking and refreshing session, matching Sunday (11 February)’s Gospel from Mark 9.2–10 and Jesus’s Transfiguration, and energising all to journey with Jesus to the Cross through Lent 2024.
The IME2ers also bid farewell to the Rev Dr Jaime Wright, as she approaches the end of her curacy at Old St Paul’s, Edinburgh, and the group wished her every blessing as the next phase of her ministry unfolds.
Photo courtesy of Godwin Chimara
