Building Faith and Community at St Joseph’s College, Stoke-on-Trent

By Chloe Hopkinson, Lay Chaplain

Since beginning as Lay Chaplain at St Joseph’s College in September, I’ve been focused on building an active, visible chaplaincy rooted in faith, service, and creativity. After completing my teacher training through the St Joseph’s SCITT and discovering my vocation in pastoral ministry, I was eager to create opportunities for students and staff to live out our Edmund Rice values in everyday school life. I feel privileged to serve the same community in a new way.

In just one term, chaplaincy has grown into a vibrant part of our community. Staff and students have attended parish and diocesan Masses across the Archdiocese of Birmingham with Bishop Timothy. We have also strengthened our Edmund Rice connections through attending ER Camp review days in Dublin and Liverpool, which have inspired new ideas for our community here in Stoke. I was also invited to attend the Edmund Rice England Schools Conference, where I spoke about the importance of schools and Edmund Rice Camps working together to share the spirit of service and inclusion.

Two groups of our sixth formers have recently returned from life-changing immersion experiences in both Sierra Leone and Delhi, India. They have experienced beautiful, vibrant cultures and met inspirational people, making memories that they will cherish forever. Our ERI ambassadors have actively pushed for social justice awareness in our local community, becoming involved in our upcoming Advent appeals.

Our student chaplaincy team now leads whole-school prayer resources, fundraising, and faith displays. We have restored our lovely prayer garden space, supporting care for creation projects in all of the green spaces around our school. Each break and lunchtime, the chapel is alive with activity—from arts and crafts clubs making rosary bracelets in October and remembrance rocks in November, to a flourishing gardening club that has created a new prayer garden on site. In November, we have launched a staff chaplaincy initiative for the month of Holy Souls, pairing colleagues in prayer and creating heart-shaped paper chains of remembrance, displayed as a focal point of our shared faith and community.

Though this term has also brought sadness with the passing of our much-loved priest chaplain, Fr Simon Hall, our community has drawn strength and unity through prayer and remembrance. It has been both humbling and a privilege to witness how faith continues to bring light, creativity, and comfort to our school family.