Wholeness and Healing

Lucyann is Chaplain to the Weldmar Hospice in Dorchester and Chair of the Guild of Health and St Raphael.

Lucyann said:

"I am humbled and excited to advise the Bishop on Wholeness and Healing and promoting this key area of ministry and mission in the Diocese."

Welcoming his new advisor, Bishop Nicholas said:

"I was delighted that the Revd Lucyann Ashdown accepted my invitation to be Bishop’s adviser on Wholeness and Healing. She brings wealth of experience, knowledge and skill to the role through her work with the Guild of Health and St Raphael and the Weldmar Hospice.

"The Healing Ministry Jesus entrusted to us is always to be exercised with reverence, love and compassion. It is part of the normal life of every Parish and Benefice in our Diocese and I welcome having good advice to help deepen this ministry."

Lucyann has spent most of her career in health care, training as a registered general nurse at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. During this time she became interested in women’s health and went onto do her Midwifery training at the Royal London because of its reputation for feminist social justice. In 1989 she became an Independent Midwife specialising in home birth across London. Alongside this Lucyann facilitated antenatal groups in the NHS in Tower Hamlets, taught pre and post registration midwives, held workshops for prospective Independent Midwives and gained a degree in Social Anthropology.

In 2003 Lucyann became a senior lecturer in Public Health at Anglia Ruskin University until she was ordained in 2008 and has continued to teach about Spirituality and health at the pivotal moments of birth and death.

More recently, following a decade of offering supportive supervision to the London Birth Practice and because of her passion for supporting professionals by offering them a compassionate space to explore and reflect on their work; she decided to train as a supervisor at the Centre for Supervision and Team Development (CSTD) in Bath.

As a result she offers supervision to nurses, youth workers and pastoral assistants.

Lucyann has always been drawn to the healing ministry, although it's difficult to articulate the whys and wherefores of this call. She says:

"Along with Jesus' commission 'make disciples of all nations' we are also called to heal. I understand wholeness, healing and flourishing of both human community and creation to be integral to God's saving work.

"Now more than ever, the quality of our relationships to ourselves, one another, communities and the ecosystem require our thoughtful, careful and prayerful attention and action."

She has been Chair of Trustees for The Guild of Health and St Raphael since 2014, an ecumenical, inclusive and prayerful organisation working locally and nationally in the Christian healing ministry.

Lucyann is married to James who lives with Chronic Ill-health and together they live with involuntary childlessness, which has taken them on their own respective and joint pilgrimages for healing.

Lucyann is particularly interested in the way we experience God in times of struggle and absence, encountered as we traverse the terrains of birth, death, ill health and childlessness.

She enjoys running, knitting, reading, vegetable gardening and sharing in good food and conversation.