Revd Maz Allen

Hi,

My name is Marilyn but I prefer to be known as Maz. I have been in Cheltenham since January 2007 and I have the privilege of ministering to three congregations.

My passion is for pastoral visiting, but I enjoy leading worship and am keen to incorporate new songs and hymns into worship, when appropriate. I am also an advocate of children receiving holy communion.

 I have had a varied career, from animal-nurse, clerical assistant, teacher, dressmaker to Church Related Community Worker for the URC in Huddersfield and Walsall, culminating in ordination in 1997 at Chandler’s Ford URC, Hampshire.

 I enjoy leading a children’s choir, called C4. It has developed into a dramatic group and we have great fun together, performing musicals two or three times per year.

 My spiritual home is in Taizé – a retreat centre in France. For many years I led groups to this multi-national gathering. The music is inspiring and the use of silence in worship is welcome.

 I am a founder-trustee of two charities connected with Kenya: St. Stephen’s Rehabilitation Centre, organizing child-sponsorship for children in a Home for orphaned and at-risk children and young people; and Kenya Projects (UK), taking groups of teenagers and adults every second year, to work at St. Stephen’s and fundraise for specific projects, such as a borehole, or playground.

 I am quite comfortable for my theology to be called ‘middle-of-the-road’. I am not a fundamentalist nor an evangelical. I want people to feel welcome in church and to be encouraged to ask questions about faith. We discover answers together and these may be different for each person, depending on their faith-development. I preach the Trinity of God’s love and grace and minister, to the best of my ability in Christ’s name.

 Revd. Maz Allen