Occasional Worship Leaders (OWLs)

Book now for the next course for Occasional Worship Leaders (OWLs)

Our next 4-week course for those training to be Occasional Worship Leaders starts in Daresbury on 4 February 2025. 

The OWLs course is for those who find themselves leading worship on an occasional basis, (no more than once a month) and do not feel called to licensed or ordained ministry. The 4-week course in Leading Public Worship is part of the process of becoming a locally authorised Occasional Worship Leader. The course works for people who have been leading worship for years as well as people who are starting out.

People who have trained as OWLs so far include those planning and leading worship in specific regular services (for example, monthly café church, Taize, Iona, etc), those who occasionally lead Morning or Evening Prayer on Sundays, or Churchwardens and others leading services during a vacancy. 
Click here for a video interview with Jerry and Sue Marshall from Weaverham talking about how useful they found the training. 

Church House, 5500 Daresbury Park, Daresbury, Warrington WA4 4GE
4 and 11 February and 4 and 11 March 2025 
2.15pm to 4pm 
Click here to book 

There are also two evening OWLs courses running in 2025:

St Peter's Community Hall, Middlewich Road, Crewe CW1 4RD
Tuesdays: 17 and 24 June, and 1 and 8 July 2025
7.15pm to 9pm
Click here to book

St Paul's Church, Huddersfield Road, Stalybridge SK15 2PT
Wednesdays: 24 September, 1, 8 and 15 October 2025
7.15pm to 9pm
Click here to book

OWLs are discerned and authorised locally in the parish, but the diocesan Ministry Team are providing a structure and set of resources to help parishes in the discernment, equipping and support of OWLs, including areas such as safer recruitment, appropriate safeguarding certification and training, accountability, support and review.

If you would like to know more about becoming authorised as an OWL, or if you are an incumbent with people you think could be trained and authorised as an OWL, please email ministry@chester.anglican.org including your name and parish. Unless your parish is in vacancy, please make sure you have sought the agreement of your incumbent or equivalent first. 

Occasional Worship Leaders

A new initiative to help equip and enable lay people for leading worship. This is for people who may lead liturgical or informal worship in church once a month, or less frequently.

Occasional Worship Leaders are recruited and authorised by, and accountable to, the incumbent and PCC of the parish in which they will lead worship. Training for this ministry is resourced centrally by the Diocese, through a four-week Leading Public Worship course, run several times a year.

Discernment and Recruitment

Incumbents and PCCs will run a Safer Recruitment process, including:

• Providing a role description*

• Asking the candidate to complete an application form*

• Taking up references*

• Completion of a Confidential Declaration form*

• Making a formal, documented decision at a PCC meeting

*Templates of these documents can be requested from ministry@chester.anglican.org

Those undertaking this ministry should also complete:

• The Basic and Foundation safeguarding training modules

• A DBS check (not enhanced) administered by the parish

They should also undergo a simple but formal interview with the incumbent or PCC representative, to include the following areas of discussion:

• The candidate’s suitability for this ministry

• The values, motives, behaviours and attitudes behind their application

• Their attitude towards best practice with regard to safeguarding, and an exploration of their understanding of this in relation to this ministry

• Their willingness to minister under authority, and to engage in the relevant processes outlined in this document

The above recruitment process may run alongside the candidate’s attendance at the Leading Public Worship course, but will need to be completed before they are authorised to lead worship on a regular basis.

Training

Training for OWL ministry is via the four-week Leading Public Worship course. This course will cover the following topics, with ‘homework’ set between sessions.

Local Authorisation

Incumbents should also complete a Ministry Agreement with the OWL. This will cover:

• Confirmation and dates of completion of safeguarding training

• Confirmation and date of DBS check

• Date of Ministry Agreement and date of review (annual)

• Which services the OWL will lead, and with what regularity?

• Expectations and arrangements for ongoing training and resourcing

• Arrangements for feedback and supervision of practice

• Any requirements for vesture, etc (It should be clear that if wearing robes, the OWL is not robed in such a way as to appear either a Reader or ordained minister. It may be appropriate for them to wear a cassock or cassock alb only).

Those who satisfactorily complete the training will receive a certificate of completion from the diocesan Ministry Team. Once they have completed training, the safer recruitment process, and the necessary safeguarding training and DBS checks, they will be able to minister as an OWL. Anyone moving to a new parish would need to go through a process of discernment and authorisation with the new PCC and incumbent – with no obligation on the new church to use that person in leading public worship.

Please note that while the diocesan Ministry Team can provide templates for the above documents, the responsibility for running an appropriate Safer Recruitment process lies with the incumbent and PCC, and any documents will be held locally by the parish.