Our Summer 2025 issue of Being Alongside magazine is out! (Click on the image above to read it).
After an introduction by our new chair, Dr Clive Timehin, setting out his aims for the charity, a short but sweet news section leads with some really good news about our Croydon offshoot and its recent rebrand as The Link.
There’s then a report on our 2025 conference which gathered under the theme of “Journeying Together”, at which we were delighted to welcome as our speakers Revd Prof Chris Cook, co-author of Struggling with God: Mental Health and Christian Spirituality; and Andrea Smyth, who is chaplain to London North and Eurostar for the Railway Mission.
In addition, we were honoured to have both of Being Alongside’s patrons in attendance. The report is accompanied by some wonderful photos taken by Ron Timehin.
Next, our charity’s administrator Revd Lucy Roose reviews Wrestling With My Thoughts by Sharon Hastings. Sharon is a doctor, and writes about her lived experienced of journeying through diagnoses of depression, an eating disorder, mania, psychosis and schizo-affective disorder, and how she has managed to make sense of that journey.
We then feature another frank first-person account of serious mental health distress courtesy of Ele Cushing, who writes for us about her terrifying experience dealing with postpartum psychosis, and how her faith helped her both during that experience and afterwards, as she now works in an organisation which empowers and supports parents, carers and children in the care system.
A peaceful interlude is then provide by our patron Dr Larry Culliford in the form of his recollection of a wonderful silent winter retreat in Kent, in company with 12 fellow workers in the health and social care sector. The photo on the front cover of the magazine captures the stunning 20-foot wooden angel carved from the remains of an ash tree, which is one of the attractions of the venue where they met — Quiet View near Canterbury in Kent.
In this issue’s follow-up on outcomes from our ongoing grant programme, we hear from Sara Crozier of St Andrew’s Church, Langley Mill, about a gentleman called Tony who, despite having a serious health condition, helped to set up a lunch club at the church, took a Being Alongside-funded Samaritans training course, and now works as a call responder on a mental health crisis helpline. Sara writes: “Tony is one of twelve people who attended the If it was only him that was supported by Being Alongside funding, then I would tell anyone considering giving to Being Alongside that every penny you can give to their grant scheme is worth donating.”
As part of our continuing series looking at initiatives with similar aims to ours, our editor Trevor Parsons finds out about the Be Well programme, run by South London Listens, in which more than 80 Be Well hubs are now operating in faith-based and secular settings alike, led by mental health champions who receive training and ongoing supervision from the South London Listens NHS team, as well as community organising training from Citizens UK.
And finally, we hear from Ben Wilson, who recently moved sideways into the role of the charity’s treasurer, and reflects on what we have achieved during the three years he spent as chair.
Our magazine is freely available to all digitally. If you would like to enjoy it in glossy paper form, you are warmly encouraged to become one of our supporters.
