“Come and preach at Pentecost” said Mother Sarah. So I came, I preached and I left. But little did I know that within a week the Bishop of Edmonton would be asking me to return to Hampstead Parish Church for a rather longer visit to serve as assistant curate following my ordination to the diaconate in June. That brief visit at Pentecost was an opportunity for me to talk to some of you and experience your worshipping life together. Now, Father Stephen has asked me to share a little bit about my life, where I have come from and what’s important to me.
I was baptised in April 1979 in my parish church of All Saint’s Hockerill in East Hertfordshire. My parents were active contributors to church life, such that I can’t really imagine a childhood that isn’t punctuated by choir practices, the mowing of churchyard grass and the constant pulse of eucharistic worship. A sense of the activity of God, and particularly of a Spirit who draws people together in community and service, seemed such a base reality that, on leaving school, there was little doubt in my mind that I wanted to study Theology and Religious Studies. So perhaps my ministerial formation started young, but I haven’t taken a direct path here. While studying at Cambridge my interest in politics, from the local to the global, grew into a passion and after graduation I worked as Parliamentary Assistant to the Labour MP for Cambridge, which I combined with freelance political research (for Demos, The Children’s Society and on Guardian columnist Madeleine Bunting’s book Willing Slaves). During this period I moved to Kentish Town and started attending St Michael’s Camden Town where I became deeply absorbed in the life of this recently revived parish church. Amongst various different roles, I particularly enjoyed being a governor of the church school. So, with many friends living in the area, I am pleased to say that North West London already feels very much like home.
I loved my work and the buzz of the Westminster village. But the call I had felt to priesthood from an early age was not going away, in spite of both the pull of politics and the disarray that appears to characterise the Church of England in our time. So, in the company of others, I set about listening to what I thought God really wanted me to do and started training at Westcott House in September 2003. After three years of Westminster sound bites(!), I was also hankering after the opportunity to spend a more sustained period of time reflecting and reading on some of the contemporary issues facing theology and political life. So I was pleased to win a scholarship from my old college (Selwyn) to study for a doctorate in political theology which I submitted at the end of last year. The oral examination should be in the next few months so I am hoping it will be well behind me by the time I begin my ministry.
To unwind I enjoy music and the visual arts. I play the cello, but have in recent years focused on singing (it’s much lighter to carry around!) and had much fun as a member of the Parliament Choir. I’ve been very impressed by the obvious creative skills in the congregation at Hampstead Parish Church and look forward to appreciating and contributing to this aspect of parish life. The other thing that brings me great joy is my family: my father back in Bishop’s Stortford; my sister who is married to the Chaplain of Aldenham School in South Hertfordshire and their newly-born son; and my 94-year-old grandmother who we are hoping to move down to North London at the time of my deaconing.
So I hope that little background will make me seem less of a stranger when I arrive! It feels like I have been reading books and staring at the walls of my ivory tower for quite a long time, so I am very excited about the prospect of my years ahead in Hampstead. Experience has taught me that (despite its challenges!) the parish life of the Church is a great blessing and I am looking forward to walking with you along the ups and downs of your pilgrimage of life and faith. Please pray for me over the months ahead, as I will for you, that God may make us all more faithful partners in the ministry of Jesus Christ. See you in July!