Episode 2 Vicar Academy

The Church in Wales, a traditional institution,

with hymns, prayers and communion.

Business has been good for millennia, but with ageing congregations,

falling numbers, and abandoned buildings,

the church is facing a serious religious recession.

So does the answer lie within these walls

at St Michael's College, Cardiff?

A new generation of priests is being prepared

for a life as likely to include the prison cell as the pulpit.

And they're taking their message to the most unlikely places.

I've still got to write tomorrow's sermon.

But what will congregations make of the young upstarts?

She was very confident.

And what will their reactions be when they try to mash up the mass?

In the 21st century the clergy have to get out there.

This is a fully working embalming theatre.

But will the new kids at the altar get their dog collars?

I thought about leaving.

Yeah...itchy feet.

In this programme, Huw faces a tough test in Cardiff Prison...

He's a trainee vicar, with L plates.

..and takes Sunday service behind bars.

This is the gospel of the Lord.

Praise to thee, Lord Jesus Christ.

Rugby mad Roz is finding college life tough going.

I didn't expect it to be easy, but I didn't think it would be this hard.

And second year Marcus takes a leap of faith in Merthyr Tydfil.

My experience has been always fairly middle of the road,

churches that have been there for years,

so anything pioneering is new to me.

This is the rollercoaster ride of the Vicar Academy.

We've been given unique access

behind the scenes of an entire year at St Michael's College, Cardiff.

These young students come from all walks of life

and have been thrown together in a very unusual place -

the Church in Wales's own college for training vicars.

They're being prepared for daunting challenges -

high numbers of clergy about to retire, ageing congregations

and crumbling buildings.

Vice Principal Steven Roberts

knows the challenging business model facing these students.

If you've got a big building,

a lot of money needing spending on it,

a small, declining congregation, how do you turn that situation around?

That's a difficult... a difficult question.

As well as going out to parishes and chaplaincies across the country,

the students spend a lot of their time in lectures and Bible studies.

But this isn't to everyone's tastes.

With students coming from all types of backgrounds,

there are some that prefer a more hands-on approach.

Rugby-loving former bouncer Roz likes having a good time

and she's not afraid to say it,

even in her lectures.

I am passionate about rugby.

It is the best game in the world. It brings you all together,

makes you put your body on the line for the other person.

And the men are really quite hot who play it,

so that's always a bonus to watch.

And it's really good drinking as well.

You get wasted with the people you care about.

But she's having severe doubts about her place in the college,

with its emphasis on academic study.

I don't think it's meant to be this hard.

I didn't expect it to be easy, but I didn't think it would be this hard.

The rest of society is kind of like seeing people

learn on apprenticeships.

Realistically, the best thing the Bishop could have done was be like,

"Let's just whack you in a church and you'll get form that way."

If you put me straight on a four-year curacy,

I'd probably be a lot happier right now, cos you're busy,

you're constantly doing it.

But I will have had these two years to have got really bitter against it,

and I just don't know if it's the best starting point.

And also I thought the church would be a lot more...forward looking.

Some parts of it is.

Cos they really need to change.

I'm just not ready to... give it up yet.

Whilst one student is wrestling with doubts, another is facing

a different kind of challenge outside the confines of the college.

Huw Bryant has had his run-ins with the law in the past,

which makes his placement at Cardiff Prison all the more unusual.

Going into prison and knowing that, with my own past,

I could easily have ended up in there myself,

it's quite nerve-racking to go and see these people.

Huw's mentor, Mark John, starts the morning

with a rundown of some of the prison chaplain's key duties.

You may also be involved in the breaking of bad news,

where a family member phones into the chaplaincy,

where we find out and verify what that news was.

A granny may have died or something like that.

And then we go and tell the prisoner, check that they're OK,

allow them certain phone calls to the family

to work out and allow the whole process to sink in.

The chaplains also work in some of the prison's most challenging areas,

including the Segregation Unit, where prisoners are placed

if they've broken rules or need to be separated for safety reasons.

In that unit we have prisoners who, for whatever reason,

have stepped over the line of the prison rules

and they need to be kept in a place that is safe and secure,

away from other prisoners.

In fact sometimes you go into that sort of situation

and people will be avid readers of the Bible

and ask you something obscure about the Old Testament that you might never have heard of,

because they've had time to do that.

In all of that we look for signs of vulnerability.

It's over to the Segregation Unit,

to face one of the prison's toughest challenges.

Anybody in particular we've got issues with today?

Good job for you over on solitary confinement, er...

and the other chap's got a lot of concerns

and we're just waiting for...

Broadmoor to come down and interview him, really,

see whether he's suitable to go there.

OK, thank you.

The chaplains offer a listening ear

within the prison from someone who's not in authority.

And there's an encouraging request

from the morning's first port of call.

Anything for the Chaplain this morning?

-Um... I'd like a...Bible.

-You can have a Bible! Is there not one...?

There's normally one just there.

-The Bible's out.

-All right, we'll get one brought down for you, buddy.

-Cheers, man.

-This is Huw. He's going to be working with you for a while.

He's a trainee vicar, a vicar with L plates.

-All right. Nice one.

-Cheers now.

-Remind me, a Bible.

-Yep.

And the vicar with L plates

hopes that every request this morning will be as easy,

but things are never that simple in the prison.

Another second year student is moving out of his comfort zone.

Marcus has been sent to Merthyr Tydfil

for his placement on a council estate.

It's a million miles from his previous day job in rural Wales.

I used to work at the Centre for Alternative Technology

in Machynlleth.

I drifted into sort of atheism,

which I quite fervently held for a few years

until I started exploring Christianity again in my mid-20s.

I've been a builder, I've always worked outside, worked with my hands,

so that's going to be hard to let go of that a little bit

and have a different working routine in life as well.

I'm not exactly sure where I'm going,

but I think it's up here somewhere on the left,

Looks like a... I don't know... I don't know...

So this is it, I believe.

I recognise that church from the photo

that someone must have shown me.

Marcus has come to St Luke's Church

at the centre of the Gellideg council estate in Merthyr.

The buildings don't look like a traditional church,

and that's the point of the pioneering ministry that they're part of.

-Hiya! You must be Marcus.

-Hi.

-Paul. Nice to meet you. Good journey?

-Fine, thanks.

Please come in. Welcome.

Marcus will be following vicar Paul Edwards whilst in Merthyr,

and learning about the unconventional ministry in Gellideg.

Yes, so, um... This is the...

We've got actually two flats on this block.

Two ground-floor flats and that's where we do our ministry from.

-This is your church.

-Yes.

The church in Gellideg works in the community

and Paul shows Marcus their Food Bank store room -

a programme that prevents people from going hungry when they hit financial problems.

A lot of this food is... a ministry called Food Bank.

I've heard of that at college.

It's all donated by local people.

You know you get these two-for-one offers?

Maybe baked beans are on two for one. "Would you mind...?"

-You can donate it.

-Oh, really?

And the people in Merthyr have been really, really generous.

-Yeah. OK.

-We've had round about...

I think it's been going since November last year

and we've received already about four tonnes of food.

-That's amazing.

-That is a lot, isn't it?

-Really exciting. Yeah.

More and more of the students are sent out

to the real world where the church

is trying to reach out to the community.

How are you doing?

And the students are being exposed to people

from different backgrounds to their own.

# Hallelujah... #

Back in Cardiff, third-year Alex Grace

is in the middle of the family's morning routine.

# Hallelujah, praise the Lord Right where we are, amen. #

As a woman and divorcee she's not the type of person who would

have been allowed into the college 20 years ago.

And as well as fighting prejudices

she also has to raise two daughters who have plenty of tough questions.

Elizabeth thinks I should know the answer to every question she asks me

because I'm nearly a vicar. I don't know what that means.

Alex went through tough times during her divorce

but this eventually led to a stronger faith.

I was really struggling and things were going awfully in my life

and I just...

I had a kind of... a real argument with God

and I said, "If you're not going to stop this suffering I'm going through

and help me, then I'd like you to leave me alone

and go away and I don't want you any more in my life."

And I've never felt such aloneness or emptiness and complete silence

as I felt then.

And it only lasted a day because I was just begging him to come back

and to be in my life.

And for me that was the turning point

where faith became, for me, a matter of life or death.

Despite the strength of her faith,

the church had some reservations before letting a divorcee

train to be a vicar, and there was an extensive interview process.

I had a...quite a long interview.

I can't remember how long it was, but it seemed to go on for ever.

Um, and two men came to my house to interview me.

One ordained and one not.

And it was incredibly difficult.

They warned me the night before that it would be painful and difficult

and it was. It was very, very difficult.

They have to make sure there's nothing that could be uncovered later

that could bring scandal to the church

or bring harm to anyone involved.

So it has to be, I think, fairly invasive,

but it was very, very difficult

and when they went I was very upset,

and that sort of lasted for quite a while.

Alex is keen to develop her experiences of pastoral care

on the course, and to get to help others with their problems.

Today she's joined by first year Rebecca Stevens on a placement

at a care home run by the Methodist Church.

One of the tasks Alex has to complete on the placement

is putting together an afternoon of familiar hymns

and poems to entertain and engage the residents.

Welcome, everybody, to our little impromptu hymns and poetry afternoon.

Um, I'm Alex and this is Becca.

So shall we just pray before we start?

Father, God, we thank you so much...

'People just seem to feel really at home here.

'People who might have had concerns about being in a nursing home.

'Very different and much nicer than my expectation was.'

So we're going to sing our first hymn, which is hymn number 13.

PLAYS INTRODUCTION

'Chaplaincy in general, I think,

has a huge role to play somewhere like this.'

# Praise my soul the king of heaven... #

'I think it went really well, actually.'

It was lovely to have a good mix of hymns and just everyday poetry.

I think people recognised them. Yeah, I think it went well.

# Praise him, praise him

# Praise him, praise him

# Praise with us... #

In Cardiff prison, Mark and Huw are continuing their rounds

of the Segregation Unit.

Prisoners with time on their hands often ask the big questions in life

and can come close to despair.

Mark shows Huw that you need to use every weapon at your disposal

to help them, even Bible studies.

I want to ask you some things about the Bible.

I've been reading the Bible.

Read Mark's Gospel, right? Where's your Bible? Here.

The best bit to read, cos it's named after me, Mark!

CHUCKLES

So...what I say... And it's short.

It's only 14 chapters long

and the chapters aren't very long in the Bible.

I've only been out of prison about ten, 11 months in my whole life.

I'm 29 now. I've been in prison for most of it, you know what I mean?

-Yeah.

-A month here, a month there adds up to about 11 months.

So what want you to do for me... I've put the marker in there. There.

It's from there. It's not even that far, look. It's actually quite short.

-There we are, just up to there. It's that much.

-Yeah.

And we could have a discussion about that, but the other thing we do,

we run special courses in here on Mark's Gospel.

So we'd love to have a chat with you and if you feel up to it sometime

we could get on one of those courses and talk about that. OK?

-Yeah, go on then.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

-Good man. But that's for you to read.

Just Mark. Remember me. That's Mark.

But the next visit along the unit throws up a surprise for Mark,

as there's always some prisoners who try

and relieve their tensions in a different way.

You all right, buddy?

I can see you're busy at the moment. You take care.

Thanks for that!

-Did you know that?

-What?

-He was having a pull.

-No! But he's been doing that all morning.

It's not something you often see in the parish pews,

but it's all in a day's work at the prison.

And no sooner has the work on the Segregation Unit finished

than it's off to interview a new arrival.

With the majority of prisoners having had problems with drugs and alcohol,

the situation facing Mark and Huw is a common one.

So how long have you been living rough?

INDISTINCT ANSWER Long time?

-Have you got a drug problem?

-Yeah.

-What is it you use?

-Heroin.

Are you on methadone in here? Hm?

-So you just do heroin when you're outside.

-Yeah.

-Have you got any next of kin?

-No.

-No.

Part of the chaplain's role is helping such prisoners

to get access to the help and services they require.

Sadly there's a whole group of people that...

-A sort of way of keeping warm over winter.

-Yeah.

Come in and get themselves three meals a day, get tidied up,

shower every day and all the stuff they wouldn't get on the outside.

Mark has noticed that Huw has been holding back,

and at the end of the morning he's given a chance to fly solo.

Mark pushes him to chat to the prisoners on another landing

who are keen to discuss their plans for when they get out.

-So is this your first time in here or...?

-Several times I've been here.

First for me.

-He won't be back. He's not the type.

-That's good.

Fingers crossed for the next time, is it?

Got work in a bar secured out there when I get out,

but it's just local bar work,

but...that's what I need out there, just something to keep me busy.

Coming back here, the staff here have turned me around,

given me advice, not to give up, just to keep moving forward, like.

We've got to move on. We've got back over to C wing. OK?

Was he all right?

-Nice meeting you.

-I haven't got to give him a clout later on?

-No.

Whilst Huw starts to find his feet,

there's still the challenge of the Sunday service

where he'll have to face hundreds of inmates.

Another student being taken out of his comfort zone

is Marcus on his placement in Merthyr.

Mentor Paul is taking him to a scheme

run by a number of churches in the town.

The night shelter is held in a different church every night,

offering a meal and a bed to the town's homeless during the winter.

And on arrival one of the workers has a few words of encouragement.

-Nobody's killed us yet!

-LAUGHTER

Canon Steve Morgan takes Marcus under his wing to introduce him

to those who make use of the night shelter.

-Now, this is Steve here.

-Hello, Steve. I'm Marcus.

He used to be a dealer in drugs,

but he's really getting his life together again.

Fantastic success.

And Steve and I and others

are working with those in the drug community

to enable them to come off drugs.

Do people sleep out, go to Cardiff?

No, I've done the Huggard Centre in Cardiff.

-Yeah, you've had a go down there?

-Yes.

Yeah, had a few nights there, know what I mean?

-This night shelter, this kind of centre, is totally different.

-Yeah.

-You come in here, you sit down as a family.

-It's quite nice, isn't it?

-It looks nice, anyway.

-You have a good meal and you get looked after as well.

If you have any needs, they'll kind of help you out.

He'll be housed shortly and then he'll be coming back into the shelter to help out.

-He's a legend in Merthyr.

-LAUGHTER

All right, see you, Steve.

It's not long before Marcus is rolling up his sleeves

and helping out in the kitchen.

This place is impressive.

It's nice to see the churches working together with practical help.

Really helping people, it seems. It's quite an inspirational operation.

Having completed kitchen duties,

Marcus and the helpers share a meal with the users of the night shelter.

I'd like to maybe get involved again.

I don't know whether it's something I'll do in the future,

depends where I go. But it's good to have seen it.

My experience has been always been fairly middle of the road,

churches that have been there for years,

so anything pioneering is quite new for me,

so it's good to see what goes on and...possibilities.

Back in Cardiff it's rugby training time for Roz,

and while she's completely confident on the field of play,

she's having increasing doubts about staying on the course

and becoming a vicar.

Her role on the rugby team is a way of escaping the doubts

that have been clouding her mind.

It's really good fun, it's a really good craic.

Gets out some pent-up aggression and it's just good to have a run-around.

Makes you feel good.

And you can be crap and still get played. And you can be rubbish and still get played sometimes.

A young woman like Roz training to be a vicar arouses as much confusion

as encouragement amongst her teammates.

Well, I can remember asking you what you did and you were like, "I'm training to be a vicar."

I did first of all say, "Are you joking?" And you went, "No."

I thought you had to be a man.

I just didn't think they did anything like rugby or anything.

I didn't think they did anything active, if that makes sense.

I thought they read books and stuff like that.

I think it's great. Break the stereotypes and stuff.

Maybe more people would go to church

if they thought the vicars were more like them.

It's just interesting that she's combining her faith with rugby.

I think it's a great combination.

But why does Roz have a better attendance record

at training sessions than at morning prayers?

It's more fun, feel more useful.

Better being active than stationary.

Um... it's more unpredictable as well.

As you can see tonight, didn't know what was going to happen.

Still don't know what's going on, but it's all good.

In Cardiff Prison, Huw's placement is entering more difficult territory.

The most challenging duties of a chaplain is having to

break bad news to a prisoner,

a task that can cause all sorts of unpredictable reactions.

Right, Huw, we've just had a telephone message through,

er, informing us that one of our prisoners on the wing here,

his grandmother has just died.

One of the jobs you have to do regularly

is inform a prisoner that a relative has died.

You have to go through the form

and ensure that these are kosher details.

Get the contact details of families and everybody authenticated

and then go and find the prisoner.

It's quite a demanding thing to do. I'd like you with me.

I'll take the lead on this and it won't be a big issue.

Shall we just pop through here on to this wing, go and pick him up,

-come back here and get on with it?

-OK.

-All right?

-Yeah.

As privacy is such an issue in the prison,

Mark's first task is to get the prisoner off the wing

and out of sight of the other inmates.

And whether he's a Christian or not,

the natural place to take him with Huw is the back of the chapel.

Your brother phoned in this morning.

I haven't confirmed this, but your nan...

-Yeah?

-..apparently died at...

-Ohhh...

-Glangwili Hospital in Carmarthen.

-Does that make sense?

-Yeah. She had cancer of the throat.

-So you were aware she was ill?

-Yeah.

She never touched a fag in her life and she had cancer of the throat.

I can put you on the phone if you want to talk to either of those people.

-They both left numbers, so I can put you on to either of those.

-Yeah.

On this occasion the prisoner took the news calmly,

but Mark is keen to know whether Huw has gained some insight

from a task he might have to perform himself one day.

Had you ever been in that position before, telling somebody some news?

No, but I've had it said to me. I've been on the receiving end before now.

-Yeah.

-And I've had to deal with my own family when things have gone bad,

but it's different dealing with your own family and a complete stranger.

Entirely different. And it does have an effect.

You do approach it in quite a cold, clinical way,

because we do it four, five times in a week on occasion.

You can't afford to get too sucked into your own emotions.

You've got to give the news and often repeat it once or twice...

You've got to get it through and then pick up the pieces afterwards, not pussyfoot...

As soon as we have the news,

we get them on the phone to a family member,

-because that then makes it more...

-Makes it real.

-More normal.

And as with every prison chaplaincy, onwards and upwards.

Let's get moving somewhere else.

CHUCKLES

Onwards and upwards for this trainee means taking part in a service

far removed from the usual parish church atmosphere.

-You're going to be fine!

-Nervous is just my natural state of being.

Just get a seat there and wait there.

-OK, I'll go and sit out there.

-Yeah.

Right, into battle.

I'm sure it'll be fine. It'll be interesting to see the dynamics of how it works.

Mark was just explaining it's a bit more chaotic, bringing in prisoners.

You don't have the usual procession in to start the service,

so there's no preparation and now it begins.

It's going to be chaos before the calm, I think.

I picked up this morning that he seems a bit apprehensive about going into battle with the prisoners.

Most of the ordinates coming in training feel a bit shocked and uptight.

He's really just going to be doing some little bits in the service just to give him an idea and involvement.

Huw now has to face one of his biggest

and probably most captive audiences since joining the course.

And has an important role to play in the service.

So we meet together in the name of the Father, the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

-The Lord be with you.

-RESPONSE: And also with you.

As Christians we come together,

and at the start we stop and think, we pause.

Whether we've been a Christian ten seconds or a hundred years,

each time, each day, but especially on a Sunday,

we just need to stop and think.

So in a few moments of silence before God, let's stop and think

and say sorry for the bad things that we've done.

I ask you to stand now while Huw reads the Gospel.

Listen to the Gospel according to St John.

"As John stood with two of his disciples, Jesus passed,

"and John stared hard at him and said,

'Look, there is the Lamb of God.'

"Hearing this, the two disciples followed Jesus."

The service also features the Cardiff Gospel Choir,

regular visitors to the prison on Sundays,

and the moment of contemplation has an obvious effect

on the prisoner who has just learnt of his grandmother's death.

# Jesus came down from his glory and throne

# Suffered poor sinners like me. #

As the service draws to a close,

what are Huw's reactions to the unusual experience?

I thought it went quite well.

It didn't seem that much different to a parish church on a Sunday.

I must admit there's many a Sunday where I've had a lot fewer

than that I church on a Sunday.

-Did anything strike you as different?

-Um...

Well, once or twice you did the old headmaster routine -

"Quiet now, boys."

But people weren't being deliberately disruptive, I don't think.

It's just once one or two started chattering, they all start and...

-You just have to keep going.

-Nip it in the bud.

Because you are introducing people to something that's not familiar.

They're not familiar with worship,

and there's always the opportunity to come and preach here.

CHUCKLES

You'd be most welcome.

-Anything to get out of writing your own sermons.

-Absolutely, yeah.

Next time...

Steve gets his hands dirty with a bishop...

People get attracted to see a bishop in his purple robes

washing people's feet.

..Lorraine has to take charge of two archbishops...

I keep looking at my notes and thinking,

"What am I going to forget?"

And Roz gets a final warning.

I got my first yellow card... in the last ten minutes of the game.

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