Tag Archive for: CW79: October 2018

CW79: From isolation to integration – Abi’s story

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Abi is 17-years-old and has an Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnosis. When her family relocated from Dorset to Derbyshire, Abi had to move from a specialist Learning Centre into a mainstream school that was unable to adequately support her socialisation and high anxiety difficulties. Finding herself bullied and humiliated by her new peer group, Abi withdrew from formal education, her self-esteem at an all-time low, unsure of her future and without qualifications.

CW79: Just a name?

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As a new curate preaching at my first Remembrance Service I wanted to get it right and do the best I could. I was very conscious of the war memorial that I passed daily each time I left the church. This is where I would be standing to give the two minute silence, a tradition inaugurated by George V in 1919.

I was aware that sometimes we go through the motions and do not really engage with the stories behind the names on the plaque or memorial. We know these men lost their lives in one of the World Wars but we don’t really know who they were.

So last year I picked a random name, Charles Lawson, and started to research who he was. From searching the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) website I discovered his rank (sergeant), service number, regiment, when he died and where his grave was in France.

CW79: Lord Plumb – A farmers life

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Lord Henry Plumb has been described as probably the most important person in agriculture of the last one hundred years. Alongside a farming career spanning almost eight decades he served as Vice President and President of the National Farmers’ Union and as the only British President of the European Parliament. In November 2017, aged 92, he retired from the House of Lords. Country Way editor Louise Davis went to meet him on his farm in Warwickshire.

CW79 Online Exclusive: A fulltime ministry in the agricultural community

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In September 2017 the Church of Scotland began an exciting new ministry when they engaged Revd Chris Blackshaw, a Methodist Minister and part time Agricultural Chaplain from Cumbria, to work as their full time farming minister for the Presbytery of Ayr. Chris’s role, which is based around Craig Wilsons Auction Mart, has been well received by the agricultural community and people are now used to seeing him at the mart every week and they welcome him onto their farms as he travels around the locality. Chris covers an area that stretches from south of Kilmarnock to Ballentrae and into the Galloway Forest.