Mrs L Cooper

I’ve worked in the South Kent Circuit Office since 2011. As the daughter of parents who were both ministers, I have a good understanding of some of the demands of ministry and I enjoy having an administrative support role to enable our ministers to do the other bits of their jobs without being bogged down in endless paperwork. I enjoy being part of a hard-working and forward-looking circuit team of ministers, lay employees and circuit stewards, that works really well together.

My job was initially a basic admin role for record keeping, minute taking, publicity etc. but has grown to take on many different roles over the years, from organising property inspections, to buying new manses, keeping Safeguarding records and processing DBS checks, and a large part of my work is as circuit finance officer, managing the day-to-day bookkeeping, producing regular finance updates for meetings, and reporting of our accounts at the year end. During the coronavirus lockdowns a big part of my job has been making sure people have access to worship material to use at home, from emailed resources or paper copies in the post, to hosting online services or helping to produce podcasts.

I love my job because every day is different. Yes, there are the routine jobs that need doing predictably every week/month/quarter/year, there are the very time-consuming jobs, the frustrating jobs, and those situations that are pastorally difficult or of a sensitive nature – but from day to day and week to week, I don’t know what new queries or problems will come up. We have had some exciting new projects too and these always come with new challenges as we move forward together as God’s people. In my time I have covered everything from A for Asbestos to Z for Zoom and something for just about every letter of the alphabet in between. I am still finding out new things and having new questions asked of me – if I don’t know the answer to something about Methodist procedures, I’ll always do my best to help you find out what you need to know.

In my spare time I have a busy family life and enjoy cooking, walks in the lovely Kent countryside and reading. I’m also training to be a Methodist Local Preacher, which helps me get to know the individual church families better.