Vocations booklet by Diocese of Oxford

TELLING THE STORY OF GOD’S LOVE YOUNG PEOPLE CALLED BY GOD TO BE PRIESTS

FOREWORD BY THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY

or every Christian there is a calling to be salt and light, to carry the transforming presence of Christ into the places where we study, work or relax and to discover how we can use our gifts and skills to serve God’s world in need. We live in challenging times and so much of our society, the Church included, needs the new life that Christ brings. In the light of this need the Church wants to welcome young people and the charisms they bring, gifts which will help us to meet the challenges we face with creativity and innovation.

For some this will mean ordination. Mission needs young people at the forefront to express the gospel afresh for this generation in ways that can inspire and attract those who are currently far from the Church. As young people see themselves reflected in the leadership of the Church, they in turn may be inspired to start out on their journey of faith.

God is no respecter of age, he calls both young people and older ones, men and women. I hope and pray that all Christians will be attentive to God’s calling and that through the call waiting initiative many more teenagers and young adults will be enabled to respond to that calling for the good of the Church and the world which God loves so much. + Justin Cantuar

CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Young Vocations in the Diocese of Oxford

Stephen Johnson (Parish Priest)

Ruth Hake (RAF Chaplain)

Andrew Proud (Bishop of Reading)

IN TRAINING Serena Tajima

Ed Down

CURACY Hannah Higginson

Rob Glenny

Robert Wainwright

WHAT NEXT?

BEYOND CURACY Victoria Mellor (Parish Priest)

Deiniol Morgan (Army Chaplain)

The process of discernment 24

“A lot of people around me discerned a priestly vocation in me well before I did. A sense of vocation is a tricky thing to define - how does it differ from the call made on all of God’s people in baptism? The support and affirmation offered by my parents, my friends, the priests I knew and who knew me well, was vital in turning what was (when I went to University) one of a handful of possible future careers into the thing I needed to explore first. I am glad I did; every day I am still learning, exploring, journeying and a pilgrim in a pilgrim Church.” Richard Lamey (Parish Priest)

SERVANTS AND SHEPHERDS

riests are called to be servants and shepherds among the people to whom they are sent. With their bishop and fellow ministers, they are to proclaim the word of the Lord and to watch for the signs of God’s new creation. They are to be messengers, sentinels and stewards of the Lord; they are to teach and to admonish, to feed and provide for his family, to search for his children in the wilderness of this world’s temptations, and to guide them through its confusions, that they may be saved through Christ for ever. Formed by the word, they are to call their hearers to 2

repentance and to declare in Christ’s name the absolution and forgiveness of their sins. With all God’s people, they are to tell the story of God’s love. They are to baptize new disciples in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and to walk with them in the way of Christ, nurturing them in the faith. They are to unfold the Scriptures, to preach the word in season and out of season, and to declare the mighty acts of God. They are to preside at the Lord’s table and lead his people in worship, offering with them a spiritual sacrifice of praise

and thanksgiving. They are to bless the people in God’s name. They are to resist evil, support the weak, defend the poor, and intercede for all in need. They are to minister to the sick and prepare the dying for their death. Guided by the Spirit, they are to discern and foster the gifts of all God’s people, that the whole Church may be built up in unity and faith. From the Common Worship Ordination Services © The Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England 2000 -2006

INTRODUCTION

od calls everyone to follow in the pattern of Jesus; to live their whole lives rooted in love and service. This can find many expressions, but our hope is that in reading these stories you may resonate with some of the experiences depicted in this booklet and be encouraged to consider whether God might be calling you to offer for ordained ministry in the life of the Church. As a young person you are already facing questions about your future, and the decisions you make now will have particular significance in shaping what follows. Ministry is immensely

It is normal for God to call young people to mission and ministry; we sometimes forget this, but we only need to look to the scriptures to the experiences of Samuel, David, Mary and Timothy to be reminded. When God calls, God also equips, and resources, as the stories in this booklet testify. varied, with many different roles, opportunities and contexts. Whilst some tasks in ordained ministry may become routine they are certainly never boring. Do seriously consider ordained ministry.

Caroline Windley Diocesan Director of Ordinands (DDO) Luke 1:38 NRSV Then Mary said, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; 3

THE STORIES: THECALL STORIES AND TRAINING THE STORIES: IN TRAINING

IN TRAINING: SERENA TAJIMA

fter working with my DDO, I went to a Bishopsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Advisory Panel (BAP) and was recommended for training with conditions. Those conditions were: to do a placement in a mission active church where I would be able to develop and lead mission-shaped activities, and to do guided reading with opportunities to reflect theologically with a mentor. I found the idea of finding something to fill those conditions a daunting task, however while looking at options, I saw an internship advertised within another Diocese. This looked like a possibility, but it would mean leaving my current full-time

scheme, I felt excited about the opportunities the internship would give to me and after being told that there was only one place available due to someone else dropping out, I felt a definite belief that I was being drawn to being part of this internship. I was accepted onto the scheme, gave up my job and moved house.

job and committing myself completely to this sense of calling to ministry. After meeting the person in charge of the

I was provided with a flat which was shared with three other interns. There was also another house with four interns, and the larger group met on a weekly basis during term time. It took a bit of time to settle in and get to know each other, but living with other Christians who were also exploring their sense of calling led to many interesting ...contâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d 5

conversations. There was a sense of all of us wanting to understand and learn more from the people that surround us that I had not experienced for a long time and many fascinating conversations came up over dinner or over Bible study together. Once a week all the interns met up and did some work with our mentors. We explored areas of Urban Theology, discussing the five marks of mission, the pastoral cycle and applying it to experiences within the placement parish, thinking about mercy, justice and evangelism and church planting. We explored our sense of vocation with the Area DDO and reflected on our own leadership styles. We went on visits to different projects, visiting a 6

centre for Reconciliation and Peace, a Centre for Theology and Community and an Urban Youth and Community Project. Once a week all the interns went to a local theological college and took part in the lectures there.

help when someone in my congregation asks. It doesn’t mean to say I have to have all the answers, but having a good basis of knowledge from my own reflections of my faith gives confidence in my beliefs.

As part of the BAP requirements I had regular meetings at college with a tutor who mentored me in reflective practice and supervised an assignment that he set. At first this was a challenging experience as he really made me question everything about my faith. I think I was scared to do this because I thought if it was all pulled apart I wouldn’t be able to put it back together again. But I have learned that if I don’t ask myself those questions now and figure out my answer for them, I won’t be able to

I believe my faith has been nurtured through my experiences on the internship scheme. It’s given me the opportunities to reflect and discuss my beliefs with others and ask them about their beliefs. I knew ministry was difficult but I have had the opportunities to be involved in different forms of ministry and I feel I have really grown in confidence. I’m now about to begin theological training and I’m really looking forward to it.

IN TRAINING: ED DOWN A quiet voice in my head in a tent in the middle of a Norfolk field was not the way I expected God to call me to be a priest. I didn’t think God wanted to call me at all: I was 18 and had just finished my first year studying chemistry at university. Up until that moment I was sure that I would serve God by working in science and witnessing to him in the workplace, and even now as I’m training I am still amazed that God called me. Fortunately, my two closest friends were also helping out on the camp and I spent some time praying with them. Those first few months were full of questions and wondering and, looking back, are a bit of a blur. My university chaplain

was brilliant and, over several conversations, encouraged me to explore the idea that God was calling me. My biggest worry had been that I was too young, but conversations with her and my Diocesan Vocations Adviser over the next year put my worries to rest. Although my family were less sure, the Spirit convicted me that God had called me now so I was to explore my calling now as well. Although that moment of calling was obviously crucial, the discernment process was vital. It was during this time that God strengthened that initial call from a dim flame to a roaring fire. Over the next two-anda-half years at university the prospect of being a priest went

from being something I’d never even dreamed of to something that I couldn’t dream of ignoring. I had about ten meetings with a DDO during my final year at ...cont’d 7

university. Those meetings and the time in between allowed me the space to reflect more deeply on what God is calling me to in ordained ministry. She encouraged me to read and study the ordination services and I found myself increasingly drawn to the phrase about priests being “...messengers, watchmen, and stewards.” I enjoyed my BAP, despite it being a very intense few days, and felt very well prepared for it. I was asked some very hard questions (and some very personal ones), but they were all for good reasons and to make sure I had fully understood what a priest’s life entails. I took a year out to make sure I had some space from education.

I started at Trinity College, Bristol two weeks after our wedding (it was a busy time). My training is a mix of practical training (I am placed at a church for Sundays and 3-5 hours a week) and academic study. I love both aspects of it, but to be able to study for three years in a community where we can discuss theology and simply live life together has been incredible. Full-time residential training has definitely been the right choice for me – I have learned so much from people with different opinions and it’s always fun to play Devil’s advocate just to see what happens. Dedicating most of my week studying is great as it’s the only chance I will get to study Theology full-time.

Throughout these last few years, the ordination prayer has been a great place to reflect on what it is I am actually called to as a priest. Even now while I am training, it has been a great tool to keep me focussed on what I have actually been called to. I was (and still am) constantly struck by how amazing the calling of a priest is, but also I am very aware of how huge the responsibilities are as well. Fortunately, I haven’t set myself down this road – God has called me, and he is faithful beyond imagining.

THE STORIES: THECALL STORIES AND TRAINING THE STORIES: CURACY

...cont’d 9

CURACY: HANNAH HIGGINSON

first felt called to ordained ministry around the age of 12. I felt that, given all that Jesus had done for me, the least I could do was give my life in service to him. I did some work experience shadowing a vicar and got involved in lots of different aspects of my local parish church. In my later teens I wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t so sure that ordained ministry was what I was being called to do but I had a great interest in theology so I went to university to study theology and religion. It was during my final year that I began exploring ordained ministry more actively. I realised that it wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t long until I would be out in the world of work, and that everything I imagined myself doing in the future I would need to be

ordained for. I loved God and loved being with people, I felt a longing to help people find God and get to know him. For me the discernment process was fairly straightforward and moved quite quickly which

meant that I was able to go straight from university to theological training college. I was surrounded by a lot of supportive and encouraging people. College is a weird experience in many ways. A range of people from different

backgrounds and of different ages, thrown together, to learn how to be ordained ministers. I learnt a lot at college and made a lot of friends, yet in many ways it was a frustrating and tedious time – you know what you are called to do and you want to get on and do it! My ordination as a deacon was a very special day in which many of my family and friends – plenty of them not religious at all – came together to celebrate with me. Many of them found the service at the cathedral very moving. And so finally it began – life as an ordained minister. Well, it has been everything I hoped for and more. I absolutely love my job. Every day is different and it is such a privilege to serve

and minister to the people in your parish. I especially love preparing for and leading services, taking funerals, chatting to people I meet in the street and through our parish door knocking scheme, and the work we do with young people. I think the most challenging type of ministry I have encountered is baptisms and that is only because I get nervous holding babies. I think there are a number of challenges that you face specifically being young in ministry: one is that there is a danger of you being pushed into a certain type of ministry work, usually with young people. I am fortunate in that I enjoy and flourish at this kind of work,

but also my training incumbent has been careful that that is not the only type of ministry I am involved with. Another challenge I have found is that people feel the need to affirm you more when you are young, saying well done for taking a service well, even a funeral. To those who are exploring the possibility of ordination I would say go for it. God knows the plans he has for you but I think that we too need to take an active role in exploring how we might best use our lives in his service.

CURACY: ROB GLENNY

y call to ministry began when I was 14 years old. Not in blinding Damascene light, but in the gradual brightening of a flickering flame in the dark. I had always wondered what God intended me to do with my life, and as I sat in the relative darkness of a candle-lit school chapel singing the ancient office of Compline, the thought began to take shape in my mind: what if I am being called towards a life in service of God and God’s people? We sang the opening verse of Psalm 4, and I prayed these words in offering: “Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness : thou hast set me at liberty when I was in trouble; have mercy upon me, and hearken unto my prayer.” My

prayer was that God would help me find the liberty of discerning my own vocation. Does this sound quaint, perhaps idyllic in the way that life rarely is? I have always found that God speaks most clearly to me in peace and stillness, when I have expended all of my energy speaking to God and have only the strength to listen. When I found the courage to confide my sense, for the first time, that God might be calling me towards ordained ministry, my mother suggested that sometimes God’s speaking is the implanting of an idea that cannot or will not disappear, no matter how hard we try to rid ourselves of it. And try as I might, throughout those formative years of growing up,

this thought refused to leave me; calling me back time and time again.

With the good sense and spiritual wisdom that school chaplains often have, I was affirmed, encouraged to read a theology degree and use that hiatus to ponder when (or perhaps with hindsight, if ) the time would come to bring these feelings, this irrepressible sense of call to the attention of the wider Church. At 18 years old, the call felt real, but the time did not feel right. Whilst studying and living, a greater and necessary truth came to my attention: that vocation is not to one thing or another, but to a number of complimentary aspects of my life, participation in which led to my feeling most human, the most complete version of the person I am called to be. Thus I discerned not only

a re-affirmed call to ministry, but to be a musician, a husband, and demonstrably not an academic.

a place of both hunger and gladness, of a calling to a liberty and freedom revealed in service.

Keen to discover once and for all whether there was an exterior reality to this interior call, I worked for a few months as a pastoral assistant in Dundee. Life was messy, the work was difficult, people noticed my age before they recognised any of my developing gifts; and yet despite these things, God’s people seemed to be saying “Yes”. I came across Frederick Buechner’s famous words: “Neither the hair shirt nor the soft berth will do. The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” Ministry then, as now, remains

No doubt the passage of time in those eleven years since the first stirrings of a call has airbrushed out some of the significant moments and conversations. I would not be in a curacy were it not for the myriad voices of encouragement, affirmation and prayer along the way. There were moments of doubt; there are times when the silence is still, simply, silence. But still Jesus calls out. Follow me. ‘The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of his words fall to the ground.’ 1 Samuel 3:19

CURACY: ROBERT WAINWRIGHT

was born into a vicarage – at least, my grandfather’s vicarage was home for the first few months of my life. He had been a missionary in West Africa. My other grandfather was a churchwarden and I wanted to imitate them both to the point of playing at Holy Communion on the coffee table aged seven. I got involved as an altar boy on Sundays and did a Cub Scout project on ‘My Faith’. As a teenager I’d have said I wanted to be a politician, but when I was 18, I spent a week shadowing a priest in an inner city parish in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The message I got from that week was that “proclaiming God’s Kingdom is such an important task that, if you have the ability to do it, you should at least

consider it.” So I did. My church gave me lots of experience leading Bible studies, sharing the Gospel with students, and showed me why we believe what we do. This way of looking at the world really made sense and stood up to intellectual scrutiny. I needed to know that I could base my life on this and have realistic hope for the life to come. At the same time my history degree gave me a sense of the Church’s tradition and the way in which the Gospel had changed lives down the centuries. I felt inspired by people who had undergone great suffering for their faith in Jesus. I could have gone forward for selection aged 20 but I wanted to pursue

academic research and get more practical experience of serving in a church. It’s all too easy at university to become disconnected from real life. Four years and a doctorate later I went to a Bishops’ Advisory Panel. One of my friends had recently been “not recommended” so I was somewhat apprehensive.

However, I quickly started enjoying myself. There were only two of us under 35 so it wasn’t difficult to stand out! The interviews were helpful in clarifying exactly why ordination was the kind of ministry I was called to. I was recommended for training and, at that point, decided I wanted another year of experience. There was no rush and, in fact, my long discernment process (Five DDOs over five years) was important to being sure about the big decision I was making. I went travelling in the United States, Turkey and Italy, visiting both ancient churches and mega-churches, and talking to a range of Christians from very different walks of life. Then I volunteered at a church in

Scotland for a few months to get more practical experience of preaching and pastoral work. When I finally began theological college I was thrilled to spend three years learning Greek (which didn’t come naturally to me) and engaging seriously with academic theology. It made me more confident of the trustworthiness of the Bible and the life-giving potential of the Christian worldview. I also made some incredibly close friends. Living in community with others who were preparing for a lifetime of ministry was invaluable. It has set me up to “run the race” with the support and encouragement of fellow workers who know me thoroughly.

I’m writing this at the end of my first week as a curate. I’m conscious of being more visible than I was last week. People say “hello” to me in the street and even know my name from the interview in the parish magazine. That’s already given me openings to speak to people I’d never have contact with otherwise. And I’m more aware than ever of my need for God’s help to make me sufficient for the tasks he’s prepared in advance for me to do. “God spoke deeply into the heart of my concerns, confirming that this was the ‘job’ God had called me to do: Do not say ‘I am too young’ ... I am with you.” Hannah Cartwright (Ordinand)

THESTORIES: STORIES: THE CALL STORIES AND TRAINING THE BEYOND CURACY

BEYOND CURACY: VICTORIA MELLOR (PARISH PRIEST)

y journey into a vocation began at a young age. I grew up as a child of the “manse” (my dad was a pastor in the church of the Nazarene). Yet when I was about ten we discovered the Church of England in Lancaster at the Priory Church. The rhythm of weekly evensong and the peace it evoked sustained me for a long time. It was here that the stirrings of a vocation to

ministry began. My childhood in the church was a time that God used. I was very much encouraged by the story of Samuel in the temple as a young man, each night hearing the call of God and mistaking it for Eli. Being a minister of God’s grace through preaching the Word and in presiding at the Eucharist is at the heart of what ministry means to me. In welcoming everyone to the table we are

inviting everyone to a foretaste of heaven, won through Christ’s death on the cross. After a fantastic four years of curacy at a large city centre church I am now an associate priest in a highly rural Oxfordshire parish. I am enjoying the new special challenges of this life and immersing myself in the community I have been called to serve.

BEYOND CURACY: DEINIOL MORGAN (ARMY CHAPLAIN)

eing a chaplain in the Army puts me in daily contact with young people, most of whom have no idea of what a priest is. But they warm to the idea that my ministry revolves around them and my care for them. And the more I’ve ministered with young

people the more I believe that the commandment to ‘love your neighbour as yourself’ is one where we often ignore or forget the last two words. Loving others presumes that we have some self-love, some self-regard, and some self-esteem. This isn’t narcissism: it is merely the

result of us being made in God’s image. My fear is that many young people lack such selfesteem and self-love; and I am certain that the priestly vocation is better suited than most to help them realise that God loves them and values them.

BEYOND CURACY: STEPHEN JOHNSON (PARISH PRIEST)

nce you say “Yes” to God it can all happen so quickly. God had been nudging and prompting and poking me to push this door but it wasn’t until years later that I looked back and realised just how much he’d done with me in such a short space of time. It was nine months after saying to my vicar “What would happen if I felt called to be ordained?” that I was at theological college aged 23, three years later I was in my curacy and having a blast, three years after that, now 29, and I’m running a parish of two churches with a large electoral roll and all kinds of challenges and opportunities. I certainly wouldn’t have planned it this way but God had better ideas. Sometimes you just have to

catch the wave and ride it, enjoy it, for as long as you can. People had been suggesting I’d make a good vicar throughout my late teens and early twenties and I’d thought, perhaps when I’m old and have had my fun (maybe 40!) but God was shutting other doors and giving me opportunities to know other

walks of life weren’t for me. He provided the perfect set up, all I had to do was say “Yes”, “go on then“let’s see what happens”. I absolutely loved training, hanging out with guys and girls that are on fire for God and want to change the world is really inspiring. Seeing people with amazing faith, from all

walks of life and with different theological outlooks really broadened my understanding of what God was up to across the world. Having just finished university, I slotted into the residential world very easily – breakfast, then chapel in your slippers, a game of snooker then off to a lecture and it was an easy wave to ride. I’m now six years into my first incumbency and have got married and had our first child since all this began. Finding ‘me time’, ‘us time’ and even ‘God time’ can be tricky in all this but what other job can you play cricket for your work; go to the pub for your work; organise and perform in concerts and shows for your work; develop

and train young and old; engage in rigorous debate; look after the dying and grieving; and celebrate with those getting married or having babies – and that’s all without the privilege of leading Sunday worship, preaching and teaching. You need to keep a sense of perspective as a vicar. You’re not a one man band and that’s a good thing. One of the hardest things for me has been when I’ve made mistakes or feel like I’ve let people down. I’ve wanted to feel omnicompetent but God has shown me that I’m not, that I need help and that that’s not a bad thing. It helps me to delegate and get others involved. And that’s what’s most exciting for me in this job. It’s

seeing other people take risks with God, step out in faith and discern what He is calling them to. I’ve had the privilege of training curates which has been great fun, seeing young people come to confirmation and own a faith, seeing Mums and Dads reengage with God after years of drifting through life and seeing old people ‘get it’ as they approach death. Nothing beats the buzz of knowing that you’ve done something that has helped people come closer to Jesus and there are many ways you could do that –but saying ‘yes’ to his ordination nudge will keep those opportunities coming day after day. It’s a real gift.

BEYOND CURACY: RUTH HAKE (RAF CHAPLAIN)

first felt a sense of vocational call at about the age of five. This was not specifically a call to ordination, however I felt a very strong “pull” to be in the military, the RAF in particular, in a ‘caring’ role. I was very clear that I didn’t just want to be a pilot, I definitely felt a pull towards caring for those in the military in some sense. The best sense I could make of this was that I should be a doctor. However, on embarking on my secondary school career found that I was more suited to Music and History, than Maths and Biology. I shelved the idea for a number of years. Aged 18, reading for my History degree, in 1996, I then felt a more specific call to ordination.

This was strenuously resisted for a number of months, as a vicar’s daughter, and being a teenager, I felt that this was the last thing I “wanted” to do. Yet the call would not go away, and I eventually went through selection aged 19. Following my degree, I arrived at Theological College, aged

just 21, to find myself by far the youngest member of the college, and frequently mistaken for “someone’s daughter.” I can’t pretend that this was an easy time, either as a woman at college, but more particularly as a younger ordinand. I developed a fairly thick skin, and an intense antipathy to being patronised!

It was however, during my time at theological college that I attended a placement with the Royal Army Chaplains’ Department, and suddenly realised that God, as ever, has better plans than we do, and the very job that I had been called to from the age of five, not only existed, but was the exact job that I was in the middle of training for. A curacy in York followed, during which time I was also a TA Chaplain for two years. On completion of my curacy I found myself at RAF College Cranwell, running around carrying planks of wood, and wondering how my life had led me to this? I have now been an RAF Chaplain for ten years, serving

in various units around the UK, together with time in Afghanistan, and the Falkland Islands. Whilst we all occasionally have “bad days in the office,” I can honestly say that I wake up in the morning delighted to go to work, and am grateful beyond measure that I actually get to do the job to which I have felt called from my very earliest memories. It is still occasionally remarked upon, that I am very young to be doing what I am doing, which now makes me laugh, as in my mid-30’s, having been ordained 13 years, and the mother of two small children, I feel very far from young these days! My attitude about my age at ordination has always been,

“If I’m old enough for God to call me, then I am old enough to do what it is he has called me to”, and if anyone else sees it as a problem, at least it’s a selfcorrecting one. There have also been many benefits of being a younger member of clergy, not least a natural connectedness with a demographic the Church often struggles to reach. My sense of vocation originated in my early childhood, and I have always seen it as a lifelong calling. Often described as a marathon rather than a sprint, I tend to see it more as a decathlon, as my Priestly ministry has so far been a series of very varied challenges, my fuel and energy stemming from my vocation and call.

BEYOND CURACY: ANDREW PROUD (BISHOP OF READING)

ooking back, it all happened in such an ordinary way and I remember it so well. I was twelve years old and it was the day of my Confirmation when I first felt called to ordination. Although the feeling was strong, it seemed like an impossible dream. I shared it with my Mum, who also thought it was an impossible dream, because I had recently failed my 11 Plus. I suspected she was right – that ordination would never be within my reach and I expected the feeling to fade and disappear, but it didn’t and wouldn’t. Two years later, we had moved house and the curate in our new church asked me if I had ever thought about ordination. When he told me the Vicar had wondered the same,

I was certain it was real and I embraced it with all my heart. I wanted to hear, again and again, what life at theological college was like and I couldn’t get enough of church. Soon, though, other things began to pull at my heart. Like many of my friends, I began to find Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd and gigs in London hugely exciting and was soon looking for excuses not to go to church at all. Until the night, only months later, when I had a powerful sense of God’s presence and power as I walked back through the town after yet another party. I remember feeling pretty disturbed at the time and I found myself, that same night, sitting on the edge of my parents’ bed, tearfully telling

them that the feeling had come back and was more forceful than ever. That was the final tipping point and from there, everything began to flow in the direction or ordination. Nine years later, after working in a bank and having to re-sit A levels and labouring

on a farm and finally going up to university and theological college, I thought I had arrived. I have since realised that just because I had a dog collar around my neck did not mean the journey is over. Each ministry step has felt like a big step into the unknown. Looking back, it has been an amazing adventure and it all started with that powerful sense of call at the age of twelve. In each of the places I have served since ordination, God has been using the challenges of that place to stretch, test, shape and mould me for His purpose. Each place has demanded more of me: ministry on a tough housing estate; a joint parish and diocesan role; a long spell in a

huge suburban parish in north London; an equally long spell in Ethiopia, where I became a Bishop (something I never, ever imagined); and now here. I think the most important thing I have learnt is that I can only do any of this by relying on God totally and at every stage of the way. When God calls us to something new, I have found He gives the gifts we need to do what Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s asked us to do, however often we might feel unworthy, or that we are operating at the limit of our abilities. Ordained ministry has been an extraordinary adventure; it is the most amazing privilege; it has always been varied; it is hugely demanding and very satisfying and has always been utterly humbling. If you are still young

and just beginning to explore ordination, let me encourage you to stay with it and to take the next step. You never know what God has in store for you, but if you are ready for Him to use you, He will and life will never be the same again.

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; 1 Timothy 4:12

WHAT NEXT?

he discernment of a vocation to ordained ministry is a shared process. You may have a sense that God is calling you to serve in this way, or others may have approached you and asked you to consider this. Often it is a mixture of both an internal and external calling. The discernment process begins at the local level so your first step is to have a good conversation about your sense of calling with someone you trust, perhaps a parent, teacher, youth leader, vicar or chaplain. He or she should help you explore further, and if appropriate will refer you to meet with a Vocations Adviser or Young Vocations Champion in your area. You will be encouraged to explore your sense of calling in depth over a period of time and to test that it is realistic, informed and obedient. Ordained ministry is demanding in a number of areas and the Church has careful processes in place to ensure that if recommended and trained you will be able to flourish in ministry. We know that you are young in years, and so we focus on discerning potential as much as looking for a track record. 24

THINGS YOU CAN USEFULLY BE DOING AS PART OF THE PROCESS: • Be committed to your growth as a disciple of Christ; put in place spiritual foundations of prayer, regular Bible reading and corporate worship. • Visit the Call Waiting website and Facebook Page (www.callwaiting.org.uk) • Attend a vocations event or conference. • Talk to younger clergy about their experiences. • Look to gain some kind of leadership experience, and not just within the church; e.g. your school or college, uniformed organisations or charity/voluntary work. • Consider some kind of placement or gap year; there are many internships and ministry experience schemes. • Read about what it means to be a Priest or Deacon; reflect on the promises made in the ordination services. • Visit a variety of Anglican churches so that you experience the breadth of the Church of England.

DIOCESAN CONTACTS www. oxford.anglican.org/mission-ministry/ vocations Vocations in Oxford Diocese Facebook page Caroline Windley The Diocesan Director of Ordinands email: caroline.windley@oxford.anglican.org Young Vocations Champion Richard Lamey email: richardlamey@btinternet.com General enquiries email: Vocations Enquiry@oxford.anglican.org

The process of discernment can be a demanding one. All areas of your life are discussed and it might feel intrusive. You will be assessed against the nine criteria for selection, which reflect something of what we are looking for in our clergy and the promises made by candidates at their ordination. Don’t let the process put you off; it is there to support you. Our desire is for both you and the church to flourish. The one who calls is faithful.

“If you are considering ministry in your 20s or 30s then let me say that it is a fantastic job. It can batter you from time to time, but I take heart from St Paul’s words that when we are weak we are strong in Christ (2 Cor 12.10) and the more I let go of my presuppositions about the world and my ego, the more I seem to find myself drinking from that well of water springing up to eternal life.” Dan Inman (University Chaplain)

â&#x20AC;&#x153; If you are still young and just beginning to explore ordination, let me encourage you to stay with it and to take the next step. You never know what God has in store for you, but if you are ready for Him to use you, He will and life will never be the same again.â&#x20AC;&#x153; The Rt Revd Andrew Proud (the Bishop of Reading)

Tel: 01865 208200 www.oxford.anglican.org

Published September 2015