Borderlands Rural Chaplaincy (BRC) is closely integrated with the Church Tent at the Royal Three
Counties Show. Nick Read, one of the Chaplains, chairs the Tent Committee and the tent offers
hospitality (refreshments at a café-style venue), children's activities, a venue for school choirs (14
attended this year to perform), a prayer corner, a bookshop provided by Lyttleton Well in Malvern,
and chaplaincy teams both within and outside the tent. This year's theme was water quality, with
the Lady of the Wye, and a textile display about the River Lugg.
Over 100 volunteers staff the tent over the three days of the show, doing front of house and
catering. The chaplaincy teams are all volunteers, some are focussed on the tent itself – it is hard to
be precise but probably more than 1,000 visitors pass through our doors- whilst others, including Borderlands
chaplains, are out and about on the showground, visiting the cattle lines, stall holders and key
agricultural businesses. The show also provides an opportunity for clergy training, in which curates
who have recently started their ministry are invited to attend and pair up with farmers and
chaplains who take them round the show to meet some of the key organisations, such as the National Farmers Union,Rural Payments Agency, and agricultural colleges.
We are immensely grateful to the Show Society who provide us with free tickets for the volunteers
and training, and to the three Dioceses who support the Church tent with an annual payment, but
especially to the volunteers who staff the facility and without whose efforts in catering we would notbe able to continue to pay for the marquee.
