Supporting social action across our diocese

We’re delighted to welcome Anne Futcher, who is joining the diocese as our new Social Action Voluntary Adviser. Anne brings with her a deep commitment to social justice, and a ministry shaped by service among vulnerable communities in the UK, Cyprus and the Gulf, and many years’ experience in education and children’s services.

In her new role, Anne will work alongside parishes, diocesan colleagues and external partners to support and strengthen the Church’s response to some of the most pressing social issues facing communities across the diocese. She will be working 2-4 days a month.

Jonathan Philpott, Bath and Wells Mission Development Team Leader, said he was delighted that Anne is joining the diocese, “I am so pleased that Anne has been willing to join our team helping us to develop a better understanding of, and therefore better support the wide range of social action that is taking place across our diocese. “She has an amazing amount of experience to offer, and is also just a lovely person and so we can’t wait for the role to develop with her wisdom and understanding.”

Speaking about her new role Anne said, she is looking forward to listening, learning and building relationships across Bath and Wells. She said, “Social justice is an area I have been hugely passionate about for such a long time. I hope through my role to support the work already undertaken in how we respond faithfully to the needs of our communities.”

Anne began her career as a teacher and went on to become an educational psychologist. She worked for more than 30 years in Local Authority education and children’s services, taking on roles in senior leadership.  Alongside that work, she trained as a Reader. It was when she moved to Exeter that Anne began to explore her calling further and began training for ordained ministry. She served her curacy in East Devon, in Colyton and the surrounding area.

Reflecting on the way God has woven those experiences together, Anne said, “I’m just in awe of how God somehow brings together all our disparate experiences along the way.  Somehow, he makes sense of them and uses them for the next thing. I continue to feel that. God doesn’t do waste.”

That sense of vocation was deepened during five years in the Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf, where Anne served as Social Concern Officer and as a priest within a local church community. Her work included coordinating the Anglican Church’s response to asylum seekers, refugees, migrant workers, and those who were either victims of modern-day slavery or vulnerable to being so.

She said the experience reinforced for her the importance of seeing people’s whole lives, beyond their immediate practical needs. “Church communities in Cyprus would readily support somebody with food, and help them with accommodation, and that’s a wonderful first step.”  Beyond this, she saw how those in need flourished as they were encouraged to contribute to, as well as receive from, church life; and how they, in turn, enriched church communities.

For Anne, this new post is an opportunity to shine a light on social action in the diocese so that there is a clearer understanding of what is already being done in the name of Christ.  She says: “I’m really looking forward to having the opportunity to engage with those who are doing this work, to notice it, encourage it and communicate it so that God’s love can be more widely shared.”