F R I A R Y
Updated 22 February 2012
Volunteering
The life of the Friary relies almost completely on people offering their time, their work and their gifts either coming to us from home on a day-to-day basis, or living with us for a time as part of the Hilfield Community. We welcome students in their gap year, Franciscan tertiaries who find themselves free of other commitments, and people searching for a new direction for their lives.
Seeking Community Members
We are looking for men and women,18-65, who would be interested in joining the Hilfield Friary Community for a year or more in order to share in our life of prayer and work. We are especially keen to find someone who could take responsibility for our kitchen. This doesn’t involve doing all the cooking (almost every community member takes a turn) but it does mean helping us to cook imaginatively, simply and according to our Franciscan principles, overseeing the food hygiene, and teaching new community members to cook. Click here or on the bottom right button on the page to read about Hilfield food. Next to the Chapel, the kitchen/refectory is the most important place in the Friary and we count good food as a precious gift. Click here for a web page on our food policy. If this interests you, please get in touch with Br Samuel – samuelssf@franciscans.org.uk
We are glad to hear from those who can offer particular skills - gardening, horticulture and conservation; craft work and household maintenance; cooking and cleaning; communications, hospitality and office management – but the most important things that people can bring are a generous heart, a desire for God, a care for creation and a love of people.
Community News
This autumn we have welcomed Dorte Mohme, another in a succession of young volunteers from the Rhineland in Germany; Becky Vickers, a third year student of Conservation Studies at Plymouth; Thomas Hosker a maths graduate waiting to join the Royal Navy; Adam Bullivant who has been working at the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in Norfolk; and Geza Gyimothy, a graduate of Environmental Studies from Hungary. As always with the young people who come to share our life, a wonderful mixture of background and experience.
Those who come to join us bring their gifts and their interests to the community. We have some good musicians this year, Tom is a poet and Adam is a wiz with audio-visual technology; Becky’s training in conservation studies will enable us to push on with a detailed audit of our land, and Geza’s interest in alternative energy and energy conservation will help in some long term planning about our own use of energy at the Friary. At the same time all of them will learn something from being with us – not least a Franciscan vision for life in community, a radically alternative way of living with others and with the family of creation. Part of our regular programme is a weekly session of ‘formation’ when the community gathers together to explore the Christian and Franciscan traditions of living in peace, justice and reverence towards God and the world.
What you might be doing if you offer your help:
- Organic gardening, growing vegetables for our use, and helping to care for the livestock.
- Looking after the woodlands, coppicing and harvesting wood for fuel and craft work.
- Conservation - encouraging diversity of plant and animal life.
- Managing a thorough re-cycling programme and helping us to live with a light footprint.
- Caring for the guests who come to stay and preparing their accommodation.
- Cooking - taking a turn in the kitchen, usually for a day a week.
- Welcoming day groups who come to the Friary to learn about issues of living peaceably with people and the environment.
- Using computer skills to help with publicity and office management.
Those who volunteer need to undertake the statutory check for the safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults, and those who work in the kitchen have to participate in a short food hygiene course. If you live with us for a time community we will provide your board and lodging free and up to £25 per week to cover your basic personal expenses.
If you are interested in volunteering with us please contact the Hilfield Friary Office: 01300 341345 or email: samuelssf@franciscans.org.uk or hilfieldssf@franciscans.org.uk.
