As an ex-scaffolder,
Methodist minister Revd Robert Channon, knows the importance of good
foundations. And that applies as much to the Christian life as to the
building trade. Although a chapel-goer from a very early age, attending
the Palmer’s Elm Methodist church at Hewish with his family until is
closed in 1978, he says:
`I do believe people have
to make a commitment. It is not good enough to live on the faith of your
mother. It has to be personal. I know that I am a sinner and that I can
be saved only by the blood of the Lord Jesus. I was saved when I was
22.’
Robert, who has been a
minister of Milton Methodist and Church Road Methodist Churches since
May 2003, began his training for the ministry in 1992 at the age of 42.
By this time he was married with two teenage sons so it was not an easy
decision to embark on a four-year period of training and selection.
`I left school at 15
without any qualifications and worked as a scaffolder for a company in
Cheddar for 15 years, eventually becoming general manager there. I was a
lay preacher and for a long time I felt a call to the ministry. But I
kept putting it off. And then in 1992 I decided with the help of my wife
to think of going full time.’
Training involved a year at
Cliff College in Derbyshire where he caught up with his schooling,
followed by a year going through the `candidation’ process and then two
years at Wesley College in Bristol. He was ordained in 1996 and spent
his first seven years looking after eight churches in the Castle Cary
circuit, a largely rural area and a big contrast in several was to his
present position.
`Within the town of Castle
Cary the Methodist was the strongest church. Here in Weston it is
different because it is a much larger town. In one sense you go about
incognito, but there is Churches Together and there is a feeling that we
are together. There is a strong evangelical wing in the churches around
here and that is good.’
Robert
Channon is currently vice-chairman of CTWSM. During the interview he
spoke of the value that Churches Together has been to him since coming
to Weston and of some of the activities that he sees it getting involved
with in the future.
2005 Brian
Kellock.
