The Association continues to grow and in doing so the amount of work that we do also increases. The pastoral care side of our work includes working with farmers and rural folk on such topics as the aftermath of Brexit; Bovine Tb; the increase in agricultural and rural business administration; mental and general health issues and finally the delicate topic of farm succession and its planning. That list is, of course, not exhaustive!

It seems for months that chaplains and others in the Association have been very much hobbled. Not being able to give pastoral care when not in face to face has been somewhat of a challenge. However, our members are very resilient and have found novel ways of talking with farmers and others. It is amazing how the amount of chaplaincy work has been undertaken with the use of social media, telephone, WhatsApp, Zoom and Teams. Massive learning curves have taken place in all quarters getting use to the new technology.

Work is also underway in planning our Annual Meeting in late September.