Profile Rev. Andrew O’brien I interviewed Andrew and his delightful wife Joanne in the study at the Vicarage, surrounded by the clutter, vestments and paperwork that goes with being a modern vicar. Two large armchairs must often have provided comfort for grieving relatives, newly engaged couples and confirmation candidates alike. Andrew O’Brien was born in the early sixties in Catford, London. He was the youngest in a family of four, with two older brothers and a sister. His father was a Chartered Surveyor – Director of Housing for the London Borough of Southwark and his mother a teacher. The young Andrew went to school in Bromley but didn’t particularly like school or shine at academic subjects. He was not a great sportsman either, but really enjoyed (as he still does) watching football and was an enthusiastic supporter of Charlton Athletic F.C. His parents were churchgoers and he sang in the choir with his two older brothers and right from being a young boy he felt that his future lay in the church. A true calling, in fact. In the seventies the Church preferred young applicants not to go straight to university but to get some experience in life first, so young Andrew enrolled at the South East London College for a two and a half year Hotel and Catering course which gave him a real interest in the preparation and presentation of food. He even worked for a while in the kitchens at Simpsons in the Strand. He is a good cook and still does most of the cooking in the vicarage, planning the menus and shopping for the ingredients, whilst Joanne acts as sous-chef. I understand that he is a whizz at casseroles. When he left College, he went to Northern Israel for a year to work on a Kibbutz and spent most of his time milking cows. He travelled as part of a Christian Group some of whom were quite extreme but living and working with such a disparate set of people only served to solidify his own views and beliefs. He picked up enough Hebrew to enhance his Biblical readings but English was the common tongue. He had the opportunity to travel round the country and found the year extremely powerful and rewarding.
Back in England he went before a selection committee for the Church of England and then took a two year non-residential course at the Aston Training Scheme. This was rather like the Open University with the occasional residential course – at the same time Andrew was working front of house at a hotel in Bromley. At about this time he also found himself for a spell in New York helping emotionally disturbed teenagers, an experience which has stood him in good stead and also left an affection for the States – although only as a holiday destination, he hastened to add. At the end of this time he went to Lincoln Theological College for three years and whilst there he also did a degree at Nottingham University. It was while studying in Lincoln that he met Joanne, a local girl from a Lincolnshire village who was the Secretary and Academic Registrar at the College. Joanne had a degree from Trent University in History, English, Behaviour and Belief. He was ordained in St Edmundsbury Cathedral in l987, a very moving occasion for him and his family and he and Joanne married the following year. Whilst at college students are pointed in the direction of various career opportunities and jobs are also listed in the Church Times. Andrew became the curate in the Stour Valley Group of churches, encompassing Clare, Cavendish, Stoke by Clare, Poslingford and Wixoe! Five parishes to keep him busy. The diocese bought them a house in Clare (it cost £89,000 !) and whilst Andrew got down to learning how the parishes worked, Joanne worked at a bookshop in Clare. They remained there from June 1988 to May 1991 when they moved to Belton. Here Andrew became Vicar of his own parish with a twelfth century church and all the problems that go with a mediaeval building – plus ca change ! The choice of Belton (between Doncaster & Scunthorpe) was partly because Joanne’s mother was ill and it was closer to her home for visiting. I asked him if anything funny happened to him whilst he was at Belton and he answered well, the children were both born there! I don’t know that Joanne thought that was ‘funny’ but certainly Thomas was born in 1992 and Rebecca followed in 1994. One night they awoke at about 1 a.m. to find something flying round the room. On putting on the light they were alarmed to find the room was full of bats! They quickly moved out, closing the door behind them and settled down in the spare bedroom – only to discover an hour later that there were bats in there as well! The next day they took advice from a conservation officer and were told to leave the windows open at twilight which they did, and the bats disappeared but net curtains seemed a good idea after that experience! After 6 years in Belton, when Thomas had been at school for a year it seemed a good time to make a move and they started to look for a new living. They were on their way back from visiting a church down south when they decided to take a sneaky melbournmagazine
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