Nicolae Minascurta: First Orthodox Chaplain at Hinkley

The Revd Nicolae-Cătălin Mînăscurtă, a Romanian Orthodox parish priest from Taunton in Somerset, has been appointed chaplain at Hinkley Point C, becoming the first Orthodox priest to join the chaplaincy team at one of the largest and most complex construction sites in Europe. The appointment was announced by the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on November 10, 2026.

It is a first in more than one sense. Fr Nicolae's appointment marks a significant moment for Orthodox pastoral ministry in Britain, and Hinkley Point C is the first construction project in the United Kingdom to have a chaplaincy team funded directly from the project's own budget. A priest who usually serves a small Romanian parish in the South West will now walk the walkways of a nuclear power station, offering a listening ear to workers from dozens of countries who are far from home.

At Hinkley Point C, approximately 15,000 people from different countries and cultures are working together to build a nuclear power station near Bridgwater. They work long shifts in physically demanding roles, many far from their families, and the site has long recognised that caring for the whole person means caring for more than physical safety. That is why the chaplains are there.

Romanian priest Hinkley Point C chaplain appointment

Fr Nicolae serves as parish priest of the Romanian Orthodox Parish of the Holy Martyrs Epictetus and Astion in Taunton, a community founded to meet the pastoral needs of Romanian Orthodox faithful living in Somerset and the surrounding area. He takes up the chaplaincy role with the blessing of His Eminence Atanasie, the Romanian Orthodox Archbishop of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, who visited the Taunton parish in July 2026 to celebrate the Divine Liturgy with its growing congregation.

The parish itself has grown steadily in recent years, becoming an important centre of prayer and fellowship for Romanians in that part of Britain. Its patron saints, Epictetus and Astion, were the first known martyrs of Dobruja by name, and among the earliest saints of the Romanian lands.

As a member of the multi-faith chaplaincy team at Hinkley Point C, coordinated by the Anglican Diocese of Bath and Wells, Fr Nicolae provides pastoral and emotional support to all workers, regardless of their religion, beliefs or cultural background, while respecting each person's freedom of faith. The role is not about converting anyone. It is about standing alongside people and being someone they can trust when the pressure builds.

Hinkley Point C chaplaincy: caring for 15,000 workers

The chaplaincy at Hinkley Point C is a partnership between EDF, the company building the power station, and Somerset Churches Together, with funding provided by EDF. It began in January 2020, when Ewen Huffman, an ordained Baptist pastor seconded to the Diocese of Bath and Wells, was appointed as the site's first chaplain, just before the pandemic struck. The team has grown steadily since.

The workforce the chaplains serve is diverse in every way that matters. Workers come from more than 100 countries, many of them young men working away from home for the first time, on shift patterns that stretch through the night.

The site already cares for their physical health through its medical centre and for their mental health through hundreds of trained Mental Health First Aiders. The chaplains exist for the part of a person that neither a clinic nor a first-aid course can reach.

That work has expanded in recent months. The Diocese of Bath and Wells announced the appointment of two new chaplains, with Andrew Hillier taking over as Lead Chaplain in November as Ewen Huffman steps back from the lead role after more than five years, and Heather Culshaw appointed as the site's dedicated Night Chaplain, so pastoral support covers the 24-hour working pattern. Fr Nicolae's arrival adds an Orthodox presence to a team spanning traditions, and it recognises the large Romanian and Eastern European presence among the workforce.

First Orthodox chaplain at Hinkley Point C

The significance of the appointment goes beyond a single site. Orthodox Christians are one of the fastest-growing Christian communities in Britain, built largely by migration from Romania and other Eastern European countries, and their priests have mostly served within their own parishes. A Romanian Orthodox priest serving as a chaplain to an entire workforce, of all faiths and none, is a sign of a community finding its place in the wider life of the country.

It also says something about how Britain's churches are learning to work together. The chaplaincy team is coordinated by an Anglican diocese, funded by a French energy company, staffed by Baptists, Anglicans, United Reformed ministers and now an Orthodox priest, and it serves workers of every religion and none. The divisions that once defined British Christianity have not vanished, but on a Somerset building site they have been set aside for a shared task: looking after people.

The same spirit of churches stepping beyond their own walls can be seen in very different settings, from the Pacific Islands' prayer at the climate talks, as covered in Charissa Suli Leads COP31 Prayer for Pacific Islands Today, to the new chapel backed by bishops on a remote Philippine island, as reported in Philippines Bishops Back Chapel on Kalayaan Island. In each case, the Church is going where the people are, rather than waiting for them to come to it.

What Fr Nicolae's chaplaincy means for workers

For the workers, the arrival of a new chaplain is a practical matter before it is a symbolic one. A night-shift worker dealing with a family crisis back home, a young labourer struggling with lonliness hundreds of miles from his village, a supervisor carrying the weight of a team through a hard winter: these are the people Fr Nicolae will meet, and the help he offers will often be as simple as listening.

The Church of England's own recent history shows how much that kind of frontline ministry matters to ordinary believers. The new General Synod elected last month includes many members who campaigned on redirecting resources toward parish ministry and the people who do it, as reported in Liberals Fall Short in Church of England Synod Vote, and the instinct behind that campaign is the same one behind the Hinkley chaplaincy: that faith is proved not in committee rooms, but beside the people who need it.

Fr Nicolae will keep his parish in Taunton alongside the new role, moving between a small Romanian congregation and one of Europe's biggest building sites. It is an unusual double life, and it is exactly the kind of ministry the modern Church needs more of: rooted in a community, yet willing to leave its walls behind.

The workers of Hinkley Point C now have an Orthodox priest among them for the first time. The question is how many of them, in the months ahead, will discover that the listening ear they needed was wearing a cassock all along.

But the most surprising part of this story is yet to come — keep reading.