Clergymen go the extra mile with book

Titled ‘The Extra Mile’ it was written by Rev Earl Storey, the Diocesan Communications Officer, and Rev Robert Miller, Rector of the grouped parishes of Christ Church, Culmore, Muff and St Peter’s; it will be officially launched tomorrow, Thursday, at the Church of Ireland General Synod, by the Archbishop of Armagh, Michael Jackson.

It is aimed not only at helping and inspiring church groups, but also voluntary and community groups, and is available free to those who want a copy. Copies are available from the Diocesan Centre at London Street, at 028 7126 2440, and a limited number are also available at the Londonderry Sentinel.

Explaining the reasoning behind the book, Rev Storey said: “It came about out of a conviction that Robert and I had that the role of the Church is changing in local communities but that it still had a big role to play in serving the needs of the local community. There are a lot of people out there wanting to do good things and we were conscious that we wanted to produce a resource that is interesting but also very simple to help people think things through about what we could do as a church, or to help people in the community think things through in terms of practical issues.

“It feeds right into the Diocesan mission of ‘Transforming Community Radiating Christ’, and the foreward in the book has been written by the Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, Ken Good.”

Meanwhile, Rev Miller, who described the book as ‘quite pragmatic’ said the main aim was to get people to ‘the doing stage’ of achieving goals by helping them answer the ‘why they should and how they could’ achieve their aims.

“There are two group of people we are aiming at: Those who are already pro-active, but maybe don’t have a lot of time to spare, and those who are not convinced and what we are trying to do is guide them back,” he said.