Ashlie

Ashlie Pearson, from St Saviour’s in Scarborough shares her Stepping Up story.

I wasn’t raised in faith, like so many people nowadays. My parents raised me with Christian values - one of the family mottos is ”if you’ve nothing nice to say, say nothing”- and I was baptised as a baby, but church was somewhere we only went for “hatched, matched, dispatched” (baptism, marriage, funeral) or for Remembrance Sunday.

As a young adult, I dabbled with church, getting my eldest baptised and attending a few Sunday services here and there, but it wasn’t quite the right fit for me. I prayed sporadically at home, but that was about it.

A chance meeting with an enthusiastic curate handing out prayer cards for Lent brought me into my current church, where I have been a welcome and faithful member for nearly 6 years. I’m on the PCC and our representative to Deanery Synod, and have had nothing but support and encouragement as I’ve recovered from post-natal depression.

After completing my RPA training 18 months ago, my priest invited me to be part of Stepping Up. I worried about the commitment because of mine and my husband’s working commitments … I work a traditional 9-5, whilst my husband has an 8 day rolling shift pattern. He never has the same days off, so it’s difficult for me to attend a weekly meeting.

Our group met every Wednesday from 6-9pm, exhausting after a full day of work. But absolutely worth it! I was initially anxious because so many accommodations were made for my schedule, and worried that other group members would feel “put out” … I couldn’t have been more wrong!

Over the last 12 months, I have formed lifelong friendships with the members of our little rebel group. Supported in fellowship and faith, we have all explored and encouraged each other to develop our understanding and discipleship of Christ. I’ve also benefited from unwavering support and understanding in grief, following the loss of a close family member.

I’ve learned more about the dynamics and structure of my parish, about existing resources and opportunities I can bring back to my own church, and develop with the help of my PCC and congregation to better support my community. I’ve forged collaborative friendships that have enabled me to enrich and expand existing programmes we had already started.

We already have plans drawn up for our ministry after Stepping Up concludes … and I say “we” because many of these plans are collaborative projects with other members of the group, so they can bring what they do to my parish, and so I can share some of my own projects with them!

The dream is simple - more outreach projects like kids craft clubs, warm spaces, soup kitchens. Activities outside of normal working hours, so working adults and families have the opportunity to access faith based projects… there’s a lot of weekday opportunities like parent and baby groups, craft clubs etc which are fantastic. But there’s space for growth and for working as a team that I can be honest with, a team that’s trained with me for 12 months and understands the principles behind ideas, shares that workload and enhances our opportunities for success.

If you’re thinking about joining Stepping Up … stop thinking. Join and enjoy!