A CHURCH of England group offering confidential support and counselling to clergy, ordinands, and their families, is celebrating 30 years’ work.

Since 1985, the Inter Diocesan Counselling Service (IDCS) has provided a confidential service for clerics who suffer from mental-health, marital, or family issues, as well as support to members of the Church Army, and those who have been assessed but not selected for ministerial training.

At its 30th annual service, held at the chapel in Whalley Abbey retreat house, Lancashire, last month, the Bishop of Bolton, the Rt Revd Chris Edmondson, spoke in his sermon of the “hope” offered by IDCS and the “quiet and often unseen wonderful work” it undertakes.

Each year, the IDCS provides seven counsellors, a supervisor, and a facilitator, across five dioceses in the north-west. They see on average 60 individuals, couples, or family members.