Emergencies & Resilience

KWM is the only county-wide ecumenical mission and so we also oversee KECS – the Kent Emergency Chaplains Scheme. In recent years this has, fortunately, been very low key but the 'blue-light' world is suddenly realizing that faith groups have a lot of people with a heart for caring and they also have a lot of buildings spread all over the place. The difficulty is that the Civil Service mind just wants a Single Point of Contact for all faiths and all denominations and so David Slater has found himself as the contact for:
Miller Heights evacuation in Maidstone, 125 families made homeless for several months, weekly Teams meetings with Council, NHS, Central government and others as needs develop.
Humanitarian Assistance Working Group – the name says it all as the county realizes faith groups might have a significant input whether water shortages, major fires or motorway traffic jams.
Mass Fatalities Working Group – run by the Coroner , last call was for migrants pulled from the sea off Dover, but a full day training exercise in July found a lot of holes in the plans.
Death Process Management Group – what does everyone do when there are more deaths than spaces in the mortuaries?
UK Health – faith groups may be called upon if heat or diseases start to seriously effect congregations or workplaces.
Faith Security Training – the Home Office is running courses linked to Martyn's Law that will affect all places of worship next year, but with counter terror links due to attacks that are already happening, mainly synagogues and mosques but potentially spreading to Christian gatherings as well.

This all seems a long way from workplace chaplaincy, but many of our workplaces are potential accident or attack sites and chaplains may well find themselves on or near the front line.
If you are interested, or fear that you ought to be, do contact David@kentworkplacemission.org