This is a text-only version of an article first published on Tuesday, 30 April 2019. Information shown on this page may no longer be current.
A NEW waterways chaplain has started work ministering to those who live along the Kennett and Avon Canal in Newbury and beyond.
Bishop Andrew meets Babs Davis on the canal.
James Wadham Images The Bishop of Reading, the Rt Revd Andrew Proud, met Babs Davis, who recently moved her narrowboat to Newbury, to join the Waterways Chaplains project on the Berkshire section of the canal.
Bishop Andrew met Babs to find out more about the growing need for the Waterways Chaplaincy.
The chaplaincy, which serves 2,000 miles of navigable inland waterways in Britain, is busier than ever because of the growing UK housing crisis.
This has seen more and more people living on boats, many being pushed out of London and along the Kennet and Avon Canal through Berkshire. Babs said: "It was an exciting prospect to be asked to head up this new initiative in the Newbury area.
We have been warmly welcomed by many of the boaters after moving here and it is a privilege to be able to serve them. "