All Saints Fulham

the case, the Christian upbringing I had and the lived example of my father living out his vocation as such a good priest has stayed with me in a profound way I grew up within the love of God and was aware of Him in a spiritual sense early in childhood. While I have doubted myself, I have never seriously doubted the reality of God. I am immensely grateful to my parents for that incredibly privileged and loving upbringing

During sixth form, I became particularly interesting in the Philosophy of Religion aspect of the Philosophy and Ethics A level. Only four of us studied Philosophy and Ethics and the Philosophy of Religion made up a third of the course. This third was taught by the school chaplain, sitting in comfy armchairs in his study, drinking tea and discussing arguments for and against the existence of God One of the other students (himself an atheist) and I would often stay beyond the length of the lesson to continue the discussion. Although I also loved acting and did many plays at school, this experience of discussion and debate led me to read Philosophy at Newcastle University before auditioning for drama schools

An actor’s life for me?

I always wanted to get into acting, so I was heavily involved with the university theatre society before I then went to Drama Studio London, and then worked for a few years as an actor, mainly in touring shows At drama school I met Rachel and we started dating towards the end of our training Within a year of leaving drama school and looking for work as actors, Rachel’s mother was diagnosed with cancer. This period was just as tough as people who have experienced this dreadful disease say that it is Very early on in this process I realised, in deeply vocational terms, that my place was at Rachel’s side and we were engaged to be married within the year Rachel is absolutely key in my ability to live out my vocation as priest, husband and father. I see the love of God so clearly in her face and in who she is. I was quite nervous about the conversation where I told her I thought God might be calling me to be a priest (there can’t be much tougher impositions on a spouse than being asked to become ‘the vicar’s wife’!) However, when I did pluck up the courage to tell her, she smiled and immediately replied. “I was wondering how long it would take you to realise that’s what you are called to”.

As Rachel’s mother, Kathryn, became more ill, we had to decide whether to bring the wedding forward to ensure that she would be there or if we should stick with the date we had planned and booked with the church. In the end we stuck with the planned date but had a betrothal service (a rite which has been uncommon in England for a few hundred years I suspect!) where we made our vows and commitment before God, before we re-affirmed them when we were married 10 months later It was a wonderful thing to do and a great blessing to have Kathryn with us for the betrothal, part of the celebrations before surely rejoicing in Heaven on our wedding day too. The whole year of Katheryn’s illness and then death came with many spiritual highs and lows. The final two weeks were very tough

On the day she died, her immediate family (Rachel, her brother and father) and I were around her bed at home She was surrounded by so much love and many prayers as she died; God’s presence in that room as he took care of her and led to her home with Him was immensely powerful and tangible. I was with people shortly before their death twice before I became a priest, the other time was when I was with my father as he prayed the last rights to my maternal grandfather Though two very different experiences, the outworking of God’s healing love were both hugely significant parts of my journey.

Turning to teaching… then priesthood

Quite quickly after falling in love with and becoming engaged to Rachel, I realised that would not be compatible for me with the life of a jobbing actor. I had done quite a bit of theatre in education, so I wrote to a handful of prep schools looking for opportunities. A school called Bruern Abbey offered me a job where I could do a part time PGCE while I worked for them teaching Religious Studies, Drama and Games The school had a chapel and a weekly chapel service, but no chaplain I quite quickly fell into the role of lay chaplain. It was when I fell into this role that suddenly the calling did become clear. It wasn’t about waiting for an answer or doing a particular job. I felt very clearly that I was starting to do what I was created to do and I felt much more authentically like myself Rowan Williams writes that the central part of being a priest “is about who a person is” This suddenly made 100% sense and chimed very much with my call which stretched back a long way as well as my current experiences.

There are of course many other stopping points along the journey so far, but these are the ones that currently stick out to me as significant I have absolutely loved my curacy at All Saints and am very excited to be staying on in this new role