The First Four Years
Resources
Parish Welcoming and Support
Welcoming and Support: Parish Checklist
Welcoming a new curate is often an exciting time in a parish’s life. It often proves to be quite a demanding time for the incumbent (and often incumbent's spouse) in helping a new colleague and family settle in. Careful planning is needed, for both domestic and ministerial context. A convenient check list is provided in the Appendix: Resources.
For the parish and the incumbent the following check list is offered:
Domestic Context
Very early on
If there are school age children getting them placed in local schools is essential. Sometimes an incumbent can make a place more likely to be available by contacting the school themselves and explaining the situation.
Before she/he arrives:
Is the house clean?
Do they need help with decorating? Will the PCC pay for some of it?
Does someone need to be present if new carpets are to be laid before moving day?
Are there any building works, major or minor that ought to happen before moving day?
Has anyone made the garden tidy, cut lawn etc?
Moving day
Who has the keys? Can someone be there to greet them as they arrive (even if only briefly)?
Ensure that the electricity, gas, telephone all work from day 1
Would a small parcel of food to welcome them be a good idea? Experienced movers keep kettle, tea, coffee etc in the car with them: but are they experienced?
If there are small children can someone offer to help look after them?
Would some help to move the furniture that inevitably ends up in the wrong place be appreciated?
Could someone provide a hot meal to take round? (they are more likely to want to eat quickly there rather than go to someone else's house)
Do they know where the local shops are and opening times?
Later
Where a family is involved some on going help and practical friendship is often invaluable. Settling in to a new locality is always difficult, and in most other contexts at least one person has a working environment with colleagues to ask questions of. For a curate, this is likely to be the incumbent and/or spouse. This may not always be easy (would you ring up your boss to ask where local playgroups could be found?) for some, both on the curate and the incumbent side.
Be aware of the needs of single curates in particular while respecting their independence. It could be a good idea to get them invited out early on for meals with a wide range of people and be professionally useful to them as well.
Some incumbents have found it useful to ask another family or couple to tell them if they see signs that the curate and/or family is not coping or has a problem in some way or other. Sometimes the incumbent is part of the problem and is the last to find out! This needs treating with care but can be valuable.
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