Newham District Scouts Chaplain

Scouting , Flags, Parades, and marching (well walking with a flag really)

(preparing for the March Pass St Georges Day 2010)

When I arrived at St Paul’s Church Stratford I inherited a scout group who use the church hall each Tuesday evening. In the time I’ve been here we have had about four different Scout Troop Leaders, now that’s not what you think, nothing to do with me, just illness took off two of them and another got a new job in the North of England so it was a serious problem getting down to London to run a scout troop so he had to give it up.

The current Leader is Andy Brodie and he has gathered a good team of support workers and Cub Scout and Beaver Scout Leaders. Andy has changed the name of the group from the 20th Maryland Scouts to the 20th St Paul’s Scouts to reflect the close relationship the church and scout group has, and also to say thanks to the church members for the support we give them and the free use of the church hall for their meetings.

(waiting for the March Pass, with Scout District Commissioner, Lord Lieutenant, Deputy Mayor, and Stephen Timms Labour MP for West Ham)

So what’s happening and how am I involved? Hmmm sometimes I wonder myself. I was asked to become the Newham District Scout Group Chaplain, it was explained to me that it would be about an hour a month (give or take) of my time, “just show up and be there”, was a phrase I distinctly remember hearing. Well I’m good at just showing up, and being seen, and eating cake and stuff so thought I would help them out and so I said “yes”. (You just know that I had been suckered by a big fib don’t you) I found that it does take rather a lot more than an hour a month and I am of course very happy to be rather more involved than was my original intention

So for the last few years I have led and sometimes preached at various ceremonial services and regularly attend meetings and sit on a selection board for new scout leaders to be interviewed for their appointments. This is such a serious job, whilst we always need new scout leaders, and new ideas, we do have to make sure we have people of the right calibre. Of course the CRB and police records checks help weed out the undesirables, but they can only go so far, so the interview system will still be important.

One of my great pleasures is to lead the St Georges Day Parade for the scouts, in the past the numbers attending were too big for my church to cope with, and St Johns in Stratford Broadway has been kind enough to host the St Georges Day Parade for us, so I go there and take over from their vicar.

Here’s just a few pictures from the 2010 St Georges Day service and parade. This year the weather was good, and the sun even managed to shine through a watery cloud.

I am always so very much in awe of the time and effort the scout leaders put into their work for the kids, honestly they are people who I admire immensely. They spend hours involved in training for themselves, and for each other in order that they can be best equipped to teach scouting to the children in their troops. I have seen in the last three years some real ‘tearaways’ join scouts and through the scout leaders and their patience, these kids who would have been cast aside by many, have grown into focused and motivated young people. Their aspirations have been raised so that they can be ‘more than they think they can be’, they get to do things which are exciting and teach them life skills. It’s a huge difference in their lives and it keeps them from joining gangs and wasting their lives, or worse, taking the life of another, so the little time I can spend supporting them is just my way of thanking them for what they do.

this is me looking 'vicary-ish' wearing the scouts scarf , and standing next to Andy Brodie Scout Leader for 20th St Pauls Scout Troop