It’s back to college for Brenda

Rev Brenda Hopkins has returned to school, as the new chaplain at City College Norwich. Sandie Ridgley reports.

Life has turned full circle not once but twice for Brenda Hopkins. Having left the school classroom she later returned as a mature student and, now, after working in a deprived inner London parish, she’s entering the education system again - as City College’s chaplain.
Brenda, who is taken with the college’s ‘life-long learning” commitment takes up the new full-time appointment this autumn term.
“I had known from an early stage in my theology training that I wanted to work in the field of education, ministering alongside students, both those who come straight from school and those who enter education later in life as I did,” she said.
“I know from experience that it can be an exciting time, and a time of great personal change and growth. I want to work alongside those who are, hopefully, asking questions about their life and its direction,” said Brenda, who became a mature student at 30.
Her last post was in a culturally and ethically diverse area undergoing massive regeneration. “However, I don’t believe joys and sorrows are unique to any one particular place and not all ‘problems’ belong to the inner city,” explains Brenda.

RETURN TO SCHOOL: Rev Brenda Hopkins

“Norwich will present its own challenges but I am trying not to come with any preconceptions.
“My first task will be to get to know other Christians within the college community - both staff and students, and bring them together. I need to get a feel for the place and the people I would help; to hold daily prayer/reflection that others could attend; to have a different topic or theme for study/discussion each term; make use of the space within the college to hold events, concerts, conferences etc. I also hope to formulate a mission statement for the chaplaincy,

together with a policy on spiritual and moral education in the college,” says Brenda who worked in a university chaplaincy department prior to ordination.
“From experience I know how important it is to have dependable people walking alongside you. People who will walk at your pace, going your way, and who won’t keep changing the map or plan. I hope I can bring that dependability to the job,” she says.
Brenda was licensed on August 4 and a welcome service is planned at the college on Thursday October 5 at 5pm.

Popular cafe offers gateway to church

Norwich Community Church (NCC) has relaunched its popular Gate Cafe on Magdalen Street in Norwich reports Jonathan Adams.
The cafe aims to provide a ‘Friends’-style coffee bar for those just wanting to relax or take a break from their shopping. Martin Kempson, who oversees the project, is quite open about the vision behind The Gate.
“We call it the Gate Cafe because it offers people a chance to look at what’s going on inside the church. The staff are all Christians but they are just there to serve refreshments and say hello. If people want a chat then we certainly don’t hide the fact that we are Christians; what we don’t have is a sheep-dip style approach to anyone that walks in.”
A core team of eight people assist Martin in running the cafe. They give up one Saturday each month on a voluntary basis to serve and are aware that they are there as Christians as well as staff.
“We have had several people who experience the cafe and want to find out more about the church,” says Martin. “We meet as a team every few months and pray for a renewed vision and that God will continue to use us. Over the past few months we have seen many answers to prayer including

someone that then attended church and became a Christian.”
The building, previously known as St Saviour’s Church, was leased by NCC from the Norfolk Historic Churches Trust. Its interior was totally restored to support the cafe idea after feeling that God had given them a clear vision for a community based Christian facility.
That vision fits in well with NCC’s other practical expressions of Church - currently they organise various children’s work, a sports club, plus laundry and showers for the homeless, all at their main King Street Centre.
The church are also looking forward to expanding use of The Gate building. Plans are currently being examined to open the cafe on other days during the week and offering further events there with an evangelistic edge.
The Gate Cafe opens from 11-3pm every Saturday. It is situated in a beautiful historic church nestling near the flyover on Magdalen Street. They serve a wide variety of drinks and some light snacks all at very reasonable prices. You can find out more by calling the NCC church office on 01603 765795.

Mission to save babies

Rescuing newborn babies abandoned in terrible conditions in South Africa is the mission of former Norfolk man Robin Jarvis and his South African wife Thea.
At birth Joshua was dumped on the concrete floor of some public toilets, umbilical cord and placenta still intact. Reuel was found stuck in a drain in Soweto and taken to a clinic by a passerby who by chance heard his pitiful cries.
Their fate was simply to die, or to be brought up in state orphanages where, unwanted and unloved, they would become human cabbages and objects of abuse by the older orphans.
But Joshua and Reuel were lucky. They were the first two babies to be rescued from the awful fate of

thousands of other black infants by Robin and Thea, who, in September 1993, established The Love of Christ Ministries in the Mulbarton suburb of Johannesburg.
The aim was simple, to take these unwanted black babies and place them in adoptive homes where they could be looked after and loved.
Later this month there is a chance for Norfolk churches to hear a first-hand account of the work when the Jarvis’ daughter, Pippa, visits the county.
Pippa, along with four-year-old Crispin, one of the rescued children, will be at Felthorpe Church Rooms on September 18 and the Aphesis Family Church, Dereham on September 20. More details from Lindy Platten-Jarvis on 01603-754869.
Weblink: www.tlc.org.za

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