Support for us all comes in a variety of ways and from all sorts of places. Many of you will have family and friends to turn to. We often hear stories of how teams of colleagues have felt more connected than ever over the last few months. There are fantastic examples of managers stepping up and creating a positive culture focused on wellbeing. And, of course, we have our Employee Assistance Programme partners CiC who provide advice, guidance and counselling.

The Chaplaincy within the University are a core feature of Christ Church. We are a Church of England foundation university and so their work is integral to who we are in a formal sense. But more than that, the Chaplaincy team work to create a culture of compassion and connectedness across the University community through events and pastoral care, and welcome those of all faiths and none.

Despite the campus closure the Chaplaincy team have been continuing this work remotely, providing individual support, online prayers, regular tweet updates, and have recently published a document called Sacred Space, which they describe as:

A little book of calm, an attempt to carve out some sacred space for thought and prayer within the busyness of life.

Prayer does feature in a Christian sense, as you would expect, and it also includes ideas for meditative activities such as origami, journaling and a lovely finger labyrinth. Oh, and a recipe for chocolate cake – for what better way to show love and support than cake?

Juliet Flynn, Organisational and People Development