Heather Murphy has recently been appointed as Children, Youth and families Minister for three churches in Worcester that already work closely together.
She works with the churches of Claines, St Stephen and St George in Worcester, who applied together to the Healthier Churches Fund to recruit a full-time worker. Heather was commissioned at a joint service held on Mothering Sunday.
Heather grew up in South-East London and was raised a Christian with her family attending an Anglican church. She stopped formally going to church in her early teens but carried on being part of the Christian Union at both school and later University.
One Sunday she felt prompted to go to church, completely on her own and just sat at the back. From there she joined the church youth group and felt her relationship with God grow. She said:
“For a time, the youth group was my church and that’s why I never want to underestimate the importance of a youth group to those who attend it”.
Heather is a mother to four boys aged twelve, nine, six and two. She feels she has a good understanding of what children need at different ages.
She said: “When my eldest was a baby, I found my local Baptist church to have the best set up for mums who were breastfeeding, as they had a separate room with comfy seating but screens so I could still feel a part of the service and know what was going on. I feel this experience and being a mum has helped me consider more deeply everything that would help other parents more readily come into church.”
Heather’s teaching background has also prepared her well for this role. She worked as a primary school teacher at a Church of England school. She said: “It was a really special place to work. There was lots of prayer. This role means I feel comfortable going into schools to speak at assemblies or deliver collective worship.”
Heather and her family relocated from South-East London to Worcester where her in-laws live, two years ago. She lives in the parish of one of the churches she is now ministering to. Heather shares that she first encountered God when she first became a mum and sensed the Holy spirit for the first time. When they were looking around houses in Worcester, she felt the Holy Spirit's presence and felt God was saying ‘this is where you need to be’.
Heather has always been involved in volunteering and leading the creche, messy church and children’s groups at the churches she has attended. She has been leading the toddler group at Claines Church as a volunteer for nearly two years. In this time, she has brought in some changes to ensure the group has a more Christian ethos and is clearly connected to the church. She has reintroduced free snacks and a prayer box and ensured they are doing crafts related to bible stories. They have also done some fundraising for local children’s causes.
When the Children and Young People role was first advertised, people at church encouraged her to apply for it. Heather said: “Loads of people kept mentioning it to me. I was reading Esther at the time and I really felt God was saying ‘I’ve given you the foundations to do this role.’ I really wasn’t sure, but he reminded me that ‘he equips the called’.”
Heather recognises there are some challenges ahead in working across three churches, even though the vicars, Lindsey and Sarah, work well together and the three churches are closely aligned.
She said: “My contract is for four years and in that time, I’m really keen to work on ensuring that all the churches become fully inclusive of children, families and young people; that people are investing in them, engaging with them and praying for them. In time it’s my hope that the congregations will be delivering this for themselves.”
Heather added:
“What’s most important is that everyone comes to recognise that although each church has its own identity, we are one big church family and everyone has a role to play in that.”
Subject to the availability of volunteers, Heather has some exciting plans for the future.
She said:
“I’m hoping to introduce a Forest Church. One of the churches already runs Messy Church four times a year. I’m hoping to grow that to every other month and alternate it with Forest Church, so families will know there is something happening every month that people of all ages can access. In time, I hope people will be able to choose what’s right for their family from a whole menu of options. It’s a bit like choosing how much spice you want at Nandos!”
Heather concluded: “I’m delighted to have been appointed to this role and I’m really excited for our plans, because God is definitely in this, so things are going to happen!”
