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‘By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established’  Proverbs 24:3

Cranmer Hall, St John’s College,

3 South Bailey, Durham DH1 3RJ

Placements

We believe Cranmer Hall offers the best range of placement opportunities anywhere in the UK.

Within 30 minutes of the college students can get to one of the largest urban areas in the country, to some of the most remote countryside in England, to the most deprived area in Britain and to some of the nation’s more salubrious suburbs and market towns. Alongside local placements, block placements take place right across the UK – and far beyond. Cranmer’s placement programme is designed to ensure its top-quality theology is rooted in the gritty reality of contemporary ministry
and mission.

Cranmer students do a variety of placements. This ensures that they are versatile ministers – able to connect with the variety of people and parishes in contemporary society. Placements are the bridge between academic study and the ministries that members of Cranmer Hall will exercise once they leave.

You could find yourself involved in a large thriving congregation or a struggling urban estate; in a brand new church plant or a church that has been in existence for over a thousand years; in a hospital, prison or steelworks.

These are just some of the ways in which you can get involved in the life of the church through Ministerial Practice – learning much about God, your gifts and your calling in the process.

There are two sorts of placements:

  • Term-Time Placements to churches and chaplaincies in the north east
  • Block Placements anywhere in the UK or abroad

We frequently receive reports from churches which have had Cranmer students saying how much they’ve enjoyed and gained from the ministries of those students. Equally, Cranmer is greatly blessed in having a network of highly skilled supervisors in stimulating contexts. Many Cranmer students find their placements to be one of the highlights of their training.

Term-time placements take place during the first two terms of each year. They involve preaching and leading worship, shadowing experienced ministers and getting involved in particular aspects of ministry and mission.

Students are placed in churches and other institutions, e.g. hospitals, prisons, schools, industrial mission.

First year students are allocated places in parishes on the basis of the information sent in on the background form before arriving.

Second and third year students are asked to suggest preferences on the basis of previous placements and after discussions with tutors.

Every effort is made to provide a portfolio of placements that build on the gifts a student has and help them work on areas of ministry that they need to develop.

Anglican ordinands on a three-year course are required to undertake 8 weeks of supervised Block Placements; and those on a two-year course 6 weeks.

One of the Block Placements must be of four weeks and in a parish setting.

Block placements can happen anywhere in the UK and beyond. In the past Cranmer students have found themselves in places as diverse as the USA, New Zealand, Tanzania, India, Bermuda and South Africa.

Block placements can happen anywhere in the UK and beyond. In recent years Cranmer students have found themselves in places as diverse as the USA, New Zealand, Dubai, Singapore, Tanzania, India and South Africa. Read some of the latest reports from students who have been on placements overseas below:

Georgina Elsey: Army Chaplaincy

Anthony Smith: The Holy Land

Lisa Harper: Dubai

Sharon Lord: Swaziland

Rob Suekarran: Uganda

Jonny Dade: Mozambique

Mary Jobling: Israel and Bermuda

Sam Whittington: NYC

 

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Placement Opportunities

Placements and practical engagement in ministry are at the heart of the formational programme at Cranmer Hall, and we believe that our unique location provides some of the best and most diverse placement opportunities an ordinand could ever get.

Draw a ‘half hour’ circle around Cranmer Hall and there are almost no British contexts for ministry that you cannot experience. From Europe’s largest garrison at Catterick through rural riches and poverty in the dales, we find Urban chic and suburban sprawl and post-industrial poverty. We have maritime communities and ex-mining villages.

This is a fantastic context within which to train, and in Durham it is all on your doorstep

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