Post by Macmoish on Dec 24, 2011 19:34:59 GMT
This was in today's Times: QPR Chaplain.
(I copied and pasted from LFW, where it was copied and pasted. Don't subscribe...)
The one thing I found I rather jarringwas the characterization of the middle tragedy. "...In the year that we first joined the club, QPR experienced three separate tragedies. Kiyan Prince, a member of the youth team, was stabbed and killed, Harry Smart, a member of the same team, was trapped under a train at Earls Court and Ray Jones, a first-team player, was killed in a car accident..." Harry Smart under the train was "unfortunate" to put it mildly. But that was NOT the tragedy part of that incident.
Saturday Soapbox - The TImes. QPR Chaplain, Dr Bob Mayo
Faith and football are growing concerns in Shepherds Bush. QPR are back in the Premier League after a 15-year absence and St Stephen with St Michael is growing and thriving.
I am chaplain of one and vicar of the other, and so this Christmas brings a rasping three cheers from me for football and the faith.
Last Sunday I was in church preaching on the Virgin Birth at 11am and QPR were due to kick off an hour later against Manchester United. In my sermon I told the congregation that if Mary could deal with an unexpected pregnancy at 14 [her age at the time], QPR should have a go against United. I had preached, prayed, consecrated and blessed, and still had time to make it to Loftus Road for kick-off and Wayne Rooney�s first-minute goal.
The churchwarden is on the staff at QPR and so understands my passion. Last year we had blue-and-white lighting in the crib and a strategic QPR scarf draped round a statue of our patron saint, St Stephen. Caroline [the churchwarden] and I like the fact that Mary is depicted wearing blue and white. Women are acquiring more prominence in football and the Church, and the race is on to see which will come first, a female presenter of Match of the Day or the first woman bishop.
I am lucky enough to share the role of chaplain at QPR with Cameron Collington, the vicar in the next-door parish of St Simon. Cameron can work a room as well as anyone I have ever known and we work hard together.
QPR are a family club and we have been able to stand alongside people when things have gone wrong. In the year that we first joined the club, QPR experienced three separate tragedies. Kiyan Prince, a member of the youth team, was stabbed and killed, Harry Smart, a member of the same team, was trapped under a train at Earls Court and Ray Jones, a first-team player, was killed in a car accident. In recent weeks there has been a lot of comment on the pressures faced by players in the professional game and specifically where players are affected by depression, and chaplains can play a vital role in offering help and being a confidential ear to those in need.
Cameron and I help QPR to serve the unseen needs of their supporters. Each month there will be a fan that has died and the family wants his ashes to be interred at Loftus Road. People like the fact that the last physical remains of their family member are kept inside the ground and invariably joke about the fact that he would not now have to pay to get in.
We are also able to help to ease the aches and pains of those who are involved in what is a community club. There are armies of people working behind the scenes, away from the glamour of the TV screens. Soccer trainees pay a high price for their dreams. They are old people in attitude and young men in age but still at least 80 per cent will never play in the Premier League.
The idea of a football club chaplain is not unique to QPR. Some 60 per cent of the clubs in the Premier League and Football League have chaplains and what Cameron and I do for a single club, Matt Baker does across the whole league. Matt works for SCORE (soon to be renamed Sports Chaplaincy UK) as pastoral support director in English football. His job is to oversee, encourage and train all the chaplains. The Premier League, Football League Trust and the PFA jointly fund Matt�s role and are encouraging more clubs and players to embrace the support a chaplain can offer.
� Rev Dr Bob Mayo is chaplain of Queens Park Rangers and vicar of St Stephen, Shepherds Bush, West London.
Copied/pasted from LFW
www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/queensparkrangers/fb_mb.php?m=v&t=43361#1
(I copied and pasted from LFW, where it was copied and pasted. Don't subscribe...)
The one thing I found I rather jarringwas the characterization of the middle tragedy. "...In the year that we first joined the club, QPR experienced three separate tragedies. Kiyan Prince, a member of the youth team, was stabbed and killed, Harry Smart, a member of the same team, was trapped under a train at Earls Court and Ray Jones, a first-team player, was killed in a car accident..." Harry Smart under the train was "unfortunate" to put it mildly. But that was NOT the tragedy part of that incident.
Saturday Soapbox - The TImes. QPR Chaplain, Dr Bob Mayo
Faith and football are growing concerns in Shepherds Bush. QPR are back in the Premier League after a 15-year absence and St Stephen with St Michael is growing and thriving.
I am chaplain of one and vicar of the other, and so this Christmas brings a rasping three cheers from me for football and the faith.
Last Sunday I was in church preaching on the Virgin Birth at 11am and QPR were due to kick off an hour later against Manchester United. In my sermon I told the congregation that if Mary could deal with an unexpected pregnancy at 14 [her age at the time], QPR should have a go against United. I had preached, prayed, consecrated and blessed, and still had time to make it to Loftus Road for kick-off and Wayne Rooney�s first-minute goal.
The churchwarden is on the staff at QPR and so understands my passion. Last year we had blue-and-white lighting in the crib and a strategic QPR scarf draped round a statue of our patron saint, St Stephen. Caroline [the churchwarden] and I like the fact that Mary is depicted wearing blue and white. Women are acquiring more prominence in football and the Church, and the race is on to see which will come first, a female presenter of Match of the Day or the first woman bishop.
I am lucky enough to share the role of chaplain at QPR with Cameron Collington, the vicar in the next-door parish of St Simon. Cameron can work a room as well as anyone I have ever known and we work hard together.
QPR are a family club and we have been able to stand alongside people when things have gone wrong. In the year that we first joined the club, QPR experienced three separate tragedies. Kiyan Prince, a member of the youth team, was stabbed and killed, Harry Smart, a member of the same team, was trapped under a train at Earls Court and Ray Jones, a first-team player, was killed in a car accident. In recent weeks there has been a lot of comment on the pressures faced by players in the professional game and specifically where players are affected by depression, and chaplains can play a vital role in offering help and being a confidential ear to those in need.
Cameron and I help QPR to serve the unseen needs of their supporters. Each month there will be a fan that has died and the family wants his ashes to be interred at Loftus Road. People like the fact that the last physical remains of their family member are kept inside the ground and invariably joke about the fact that he would not now have to pay to get in.
We are also able to help to ease the aches and pains of those who are involved in what is a community club. There are armies of people working behind the scenes, away from the glamour of the TV screens. Soccer trainees pay a high price for their dreams. They are old people in attitude and young men in age but still at least 80 per cent will never play in the Premier League.
The idea of a football club chaplain is not unique to QPR. Some 60 per cent of the clubs in the Premier League and Football League have chaplains and what Cameron and I do for a single club, Matt Baker does across the whole league. Matt works for SCORE (soon to be renamed Sports Chaplaincy UK) as pastoral support director in English football. His job is to oversee, encourage and train all the chaplains. The Premier League, Football League Trust and the PFA jointly fund Matt�s role and are encouraging more clubs and players to embrace the support a chaplain can offer.
� Rev Dr Bob Mayo is chaplain of Queens Park Rangers and vicar of St Stephen, Shepherds Bush, West London.
Copied/pasted from LFW
www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/queensparkrangers/fb_mb.php?m=v&t=43361#1
