Cynnal supports clergy in crisis
Clergy and other Christian leaders suffering with addictions and mental illness are able to seek free, expert counselling from CYNNAL, a Wales-wide service for all denominations, supported by the Church in Wales. For some, it’s a lifeline, says the Revd Ifan Rhisiart Roberts, chair of Cynnal’s advisory panel.
Cynnal was established in April 2015 under the supervision of CAIS (now part of the Adferiad Recovery charity) as a free confidential counseling service for clergy, ministers, Christian workers and their families. Cynnal offers help to those suffering from all forms of addiction and mental illness. In establishing Cynnal we emphasized three things:
- the service was to be Christian in nature
- the service was to be a nation-wide service
- the service was to be made available through the medium of both Welsh and English
Cynnal is overseen by an Advisory Panel and the work is led by Wynford Ellis Owen, a specialist counseling consultant.
175 clients are now registered with Cynnal with 77 currently receiving help, with the remaining clients receiving ongoing group therapy or having completed their therapy. 21 new clients sought help between December 2021 and June 2022.
In-person counselling is offered on a one-to-one basis but over the past two years this has taken place online. From mid-June these sessions will increasingly be face-to-face. In addition, therapy groups are held. A weekly English language meeting is held for the Carmarthen and West Wales area. From June 17th there will be face-to-face group sessions at our new centre in Woods Row, Carmarthen – held as hybrid meetings. Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, has a fortnightly Welsh meeting on Zoom and an all-Wales Welsh meeting with people from North Wales and other areas is also held. About 40 attend these meetings regularly
Cynnal's residential weekend retreat was held at Coleg Trefeca in February 2022 and another retreat will be held there September 9-11. Positive feedback has been received for example:
- “having waited for days and weeks for this retreat, it did not disappoint. What I liked most was the encouragement to open up and be brave – and the support subsequently given.”
- “The retreat was excellent. Everyone was incredibly honest throughout. Everyone told their story without keeping anything back, and many of the stories were unbelievably sad.”
- “Many things came to the surface as I shared things that I had never before told anyone else. Then everything was presented to God....”
Resources were posted on the Website for Recovery Sunday (this year’s Recovery Sunday will be held on October 30th). Also posted were prayers for Christmas, Easter and a prayer for those ministering in Ukraine.
Wynford has also tried to raise awareness of the spiritual journey to wholeness by posting 100 lessons on Facebook. A number of people have sought help as a result.
A questionnaire is provided for each client and by this means we are able to have a detailed and professional assessment of the counselling work. Here are some of the responses received.
- “Without Cynnal I would almost certainly have not been able to carry on as a minister when I suffered stress recently. I cannot thank them enough.”
- “I am truly grateful that I’m recovering, and without your help and God’s I wouldn’t be alive at this moment, but I am, and things are heading in the right direction. Diolch o galon!”
- “I have been to rehab and had countless hospitalizations. But it is these groups that have really helped me. This has not only given me the taste of life once again but my children have benefited so much by getting their mother back. I am so thankful. Diolch”
- “The therapy that I have received saved me, thank you.”
In conclusion, it’s clear that there is a great demand for the services of Cynnal and it is sad to have to report that so many ministers, Christian workers and their families are seeking help. This help is vital and is literally a matter of life and death for some. We therefore appeal to all four denominations in Wales to take ownership of this service and contribute the necessary finance for the service to continue. It would indeed be disastrous if the service was not available because of a lack of financial support.