Revd Ian Worsfold:
Outstanding Personal Achievement

We are extremely excited to announce that Revd Ian Worsfold, the District's Chaplaincy Coordinator, was announced last week as a finalist for the University of London's President's Award for Outstanding Personal Achievement. ​

Ian's nomination endorsement read:

​"The Reverend Ian Worsfold is the Chaplaincy Co-ordinator for City. His role is pivotal in helping City to embrace and support its multi-faith campus. Through his work, Ian models all of the values that are central to our Vision; fulfilling students and staff faith and wider support needs and building our community. Ian is a champion and advocate for students and staff of all faiths and none.

Ian led on the creation and opening of the new faith space for City; the state of the art Multi -Faith Centre is a strong statement within City, recognising the multicultural make-up of our community. This development represents many hours of dedicated planning and consulting would not have been possible without the lead, direction, patience and vision provided by Ian. The understanding and ability to draw on both his own experiences and the other Chaplains at City is one of Ian’s best attributes.​

As well as leading on the physical space, Ian has endeavoured to build relationships and raise the profile of the Faith and Chaplaincy team, in particular working closely with Student Faith Societies. He started the Inter-Faith Forum and chaired this for over a year, creating opportunities for the leaders of different faith societies together. He now leads on President Lunches for the different Faith Societies giving students the chance to network, collaborate and learn about each other’s faith. Ian also works closely with a departments and services across City. For example, with Student Counselling and Mental Health and the Students’ Union, collaborating on campaigns such as Studywell - promoting wellbeing for students during exams. 

A number of events that are led by Ian have brought the City community together such as Remembrance Day and Carols at Christmas. Other initiatives that Ian has led on have been ‘Chat up a Chaplain,’ a tour of Places of Worship in the local area and Inter-faith week. His strong sense of collaboration with affinity groups also shines through in his work for LGBT students and leading on a safe space and coffee mornings to enable wider understanding of LGBT and faith together.

​Ian is approachable, thoughtful and supportive. He provides pastoral care for students and staff and his open door policy means there is always a safe space and person to go to at City. He has made a massive contribution to City during his time here, most visibly to others through the opening of the new Faith Centre, but behind the scenes where the initiatives that he has initiated have made City a better, kinder place to be. Before getting to a meeting room Ian has to allow an extra fifteen minutes just to make time for all the people that like to speak to him along the way! City is very fortunate to have Ian as our Chaplaincy Coordinator and he very deserving of this award."​​

Congratulations, Ian! We're very proud to have you as a member of our team!