Members of the Associate Community (AC) are an integral part of the whole community, working alongside members of the Resident Community (RC).
Members of the Associate Community will:
- Be committed to the vision and values of Lee Abbey Devon and prepared in principle to make (Green Badge) Community promises:
- a) To affirm their personal faith in Christ and their desire through prayer, study and service, to seek a deep and mature faith;
- b) To understand by this that their mind, time, talents, possessions and all their relationships are to be increasingly surrendered to Christ as Lord;
- c) To be loyal to the Community in its aims, its work, its standards of behaviour, and its disciplines.
- As a general rule, attend Morning and Afternoon prayers, Sunday Corpus, Team meetings and Community meetings. ACs may also be invited to join a C Group.
- Be able and willing to work for up to 8 hours per day alongside the RC and under its leadership, as part of a team. They will work in either the Kitchen team or House team, or in the Mission and Ministry team as Pastoral Helpers. They will also be included in the ‘Tea and Coffee’ and serving rotas. Appropriate training will be given.
- Follow Safeguarding boundaries ( in relating to other community members and guests and in respecting private and community spaces).
- Not be required or requested to make a financial contribution.
- Give their availability on the understanding that they will be contacted by us if required.
- Be willing to serve for 2/3 weeks at a time.
We hope to continue to recruit more ACs in the coming months.
At this stage, we would ask you to prayerfully consider whether God is encouraging you to be part of this exciting opportunity in the life of Lee Abbey Devon.
Martin and Christine Swindlehurst are the Lee Abbey Associate Community Coordinators who work in partnership with the Personnel team to provide a relational and communication connecting point for Associate Community (AC).
They both have a long association with Lee Abbey as Pastoral Helpers and, more recently, as AC volunteers and are passionate about the future of Lee Abbey and keen to use their expertise (Christine is a retired ordained minister and Martin a retired senior manager) to help with the re-opening and continued ministry of Lee Abbey Devon. During our most recent opening in October they worked on the Kitchen team (Martin) and House team (Christine) and really felt a deeper presence of God through chopping vegetables and cleaning bathrooms! The simplest of tasks are tremendously rewarding when you are working in a God filled environment with people who love the Lord and they really feel a part of the ministry of Lee Abbey and are committed to its future.
