Vocations - Stories

In July 2010, 9 new deacons were ordained in Newcastle Cathedral
Read their stories below:

Hi my name is Daniel (33 year old). I have been married (for 7 years) to an amazing woman called Alison, and have an awesome son called Benjamin (2 ½ ) and the delight of another child due to be born in the middle of July! I originally come from Essex, whilst Alison has split loyalties with Yorkshire and Lancashire. Benjamin is the only Geordie in the family.

I studied Law at Wolverhampton University, thinking I was going to be legal aid solicitor working in criminal law. But for the following six years I was involved in mission and church planting in Yorkshire, Liverpool and Essex.

In 2004, we sensed a call by God to Newcastle. So we quit our jobs and moved to Newcastle to live and work with the parish church in Fawdon (St Mary’s). We loved our time in Fawdon, the church there is amazing. In 2006, Pamela Ingham encouraged me to look at ordination, which shocked me at first. The more I prayed about it the more I sensed this was what I was meant to do with my life; to serve God in the church as we share this beautiful news with our neighbours. In 2008, I was accepted to train as a priest. I have studied for two years at Trinity College in Bristol. I have learnt from and been inspired so much by my friends’ and tutors’ passion for Jesus

In July I shall be ordained deacon and will serve my curacy at St Bartholomew’s Longbenton.

Rosie Stacy says:

My journey towards ordination has been very much connected to Upper Coquetdale, where I have lived for the past eight years. Here I was brought into contact with the church as a worshipping community through being invited to sing in the ‘Christmas, Easter and Harvest choir’ at Alwinton. From my long since lapsed Methodist roots I was called back into the Christian faith. Having a woman vicar, and one who had been a shepherd, was also significant: it reminded me of the sayings of Jesus when he talked of acceptance back into the fold, and his commissioning of the disciples to lead the sheep. However I was taken completely by surprise by a calling to priesthood. I had no doubts though this was to serve in Upper Coquetdale, the place that had drawn me in. It was later that I came across the work of Schillebeeckx, and was so excited when I read the case he made for local ministry. As in the days of the early church I needed to check out my calling with those in the Christian and wider community, starting with friends, work colleagues, congregation members, and the vicar; then the PCC and with our Churches Together Council, through which we have an ecumenical Local Ministry Group.

I work two days a week as Senior Tutor for Student Support and Guidance in the Medical School at Newcastle University. This involves listening to problems and concerns that students bring and guiding them through the complexities of the clinical training programme. When not there and not writing essays for the ordination training, I tend to be either in the garden or making music. Graham, my husband, and I have plenty to keep us busy with a wood, our own water supply and keeping rabbits away from the vegetables! The Parish of Upper Coquetdale is some 200 square miles, with 11 churches, six of them Church of England congregations, and 5 others representing three other denominations. It will be an enormous privilege to serve there as part of the clergy team in my community.

Michelle Dalliston writes:
I am writing this from Cranmer Hall, Durham where it seems impossible to believe that I only have a term and a half left before ordination! I have been studying on the full-time Theology and Ministry course, travelling in daily from Newcastle which has meant that I can still live at home with my family, although it makes for very long days and a certain amount of boredom with one stretch of the A1!
I came to Newcastle nearly 7 years ago when Chris became Dean of Newcastle and we moved up the east coast from Boston, Lincolnshire with our three children, Tom, Georgie and Isabella. I was born in St Albans and grew up in North Essex – both Chris and I have family roots in East Anglia – particularly Norfolk. Previously I have worked in fundraising and principally, with children and young people in churches and schools, and I have taught a lot of people how to do Godly Play!

With colleagues from Newcastle and Durham Dioceses we set up Godly Play North, a Diocesan Task Group, offering support and training for those working with Godly Play in the northern region. I have always been passionate about sharing the gospel with children and Godly Play both helped me do this and ultimately brought me to recognition of a call to ordained ministry.
I began training at Cranmer Hall in September 2008 and the last two years have seen academic and other pressures in the Dalliston household as GCSE’s and A-levels as well as essays, seminars, presentations, sermons, and live radio broadcasts have all come to pass!
It has been a deeply enriching time for me and I have enjoyed the studying, particularly grounded as it has been in real life through the focus here at Cranmer on formation and the integration of theology and practical experience. As such, the placements we do while at college are especially part of this process of growing and forming as ministers and I have been privileged to work in the Benwell Team Ministry, the United Benefice of Stamfordham with Matfen and Ryal and at the Chaplaincy at the RVI. I am looking forward to spending a week working as part of the community at Alnmouth Friary in Holy Week.
After ordination at the Cathedral in July, which will, of course, feel very special for me, I will be curate at St Nicholas Gosforth, which is the next door parish to where we live in Jesmond. I am excited and nervous about the challenges that lie ahead and yet another change of daily life, but during this whole, amazing vocational journey, I have gradually learnt to trust God more and recognise that I am given the strength to do what he is calling me to do, as he does for each one of us. So more than anything else, I am full of expectation as I look forward to the beginning of a new stage of ministry and a new role in the Diocese of Newcastle, of which I am very proud to be a part.

Tony Curtis
I’m delighted to be coming back to the North East, to be ordained in the same church where I was baptised 36 years ago. Having spent many years in the choir and finally on the staff at the Cathedral, it truly will feel like coming home. I’m also really looking forward to serving my title in Morpeth. My wife Rachel, our two year old son Gabriel and I have already met some of the people in our new parish, and there’ll be another addition to the family a couple of months after we arrive. From what we’ve seen so far we’ll all feel very much at home there too.
This has been quite a long journey to ordination for me. After growing up on Tyneside and then in York, I spent around ten years working on the Railway in Project Management, and some of that time was spent trying to avoid the nagging suspicion that God was calling me to ordained ministry. After finally deciding that I needed to explore my vocation, I went to see the Director of Ordinands, and eventually found myself at Westcott House in Cambridge. As part of my training I’ve been on placements with local churches, an RAF Chaplain, and a rural affairs officer. I’ve also had a full-time training placement at St. Bene’t’s church, where Gabriel has taken a keen interest in icons and stained glass windows!
Our time in Cambridge has involved a lot of changes. When we moved here from Monkseaton, Rachel gave up her job as a youth worker in Newcastle, and I went from thinking about development plans to studying Greek. A few months after we arrived, Gabriel did too, and that brought with it both great joy and plenty of challenges! He has really thrived here, and being born in a theological college means he has never been short of people to entertain him.
Rachel has been working at Addenbrookes Hospital for the past eighteen months, co-ordinating the young people’s participation board, and has also been involved in the life of Westcott House as Partners’ Rep. For both of us it has been a real change of pace and of place, but we’re now looking forward very much to coming to Morpeth, where I’ll be continuing my training and revisiting my nappy changing skills. As I had followed Newcastle United for 25 years before we moved to Cambridge, I dare say there’ll be the odd trip to St. James’s Park too...

June Barras is due to be ordained deacon as an ordained local minister in Warkworth and Acklington. As a child she lived both on Tyneside and in Northumberland. After training as a teacher, she married fellow north-easterner Brian. They have two sons (David and Peter), and three grandchildren. Brian’s career took them down to the Midlands where they lived for a number of years. Once the boys were old enough, June returned to work as a youth worker and then as an FE lecturer teaching English and working with people with learning difficulties. She trained as a Reader in Leicester Diocese, being licensed in 1998. Following Brian’s retirement they have been able to return to Northumberland, and have set up home and garden in Acklington. June is actively involved in village life, loves interacting with all sorts of people, and as a non-driver is a champion for local public transport.

Catherine Clasen Askew writes:
    I was born in the mid-70’s in Houston, Texas. At a young age, I moved with my family to Kingsport, Tennessee where my parents still live today. I’m from a part of the country known for bluegrass music, mountain crafts like quilting, Nascar racing.
    From my late-teens, I had a strong sense God was calling me to leadership in the Church. I studied at Presbyterian College in South Carolina and Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey. In 2002 was ordained as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA). I served as an Associate Minister in Kingsport, TN from 2001-2005 working primarily with young people, worship leadership, and spiritual formation.
    Although I enjoyed working in a church, I felt something was missing. I also felt called to live in community, offer hospitality to others, and engage in a deeper life of prayer. Because I wasn’t sure what this might look like, from 2005-06 I embarked on a pilgrimage to study and explore new monastic communities in the US and Europe. This journey led me to the Mother House of Northumbria Community (near Belford, Northumberland) where I discovered a spiritual home and the man who is now my husband. After marrying Pete and moving to Harrogate, I further felt led to switch over to the Church of England. I appreciate its focus on incarnational ministry, the parish system, and its sense of history. So, I began work as a lay minister at St. John’s and St. Luke’s Together in Harrogate, whilst also studying at Cranmer Hall in Durham.
    I have recently taken up a post for the Northumbria Community where, in addition to hosting guests, I am working in the area of spiritual formation, pastoral care, and liturgy. The Mother House will move from our current location to one near Felton around November of this year. My NSM Curacy will be with Diane Westmoreland in Amble. I very much look forward to becoming more active in the Diocese and serving God together.

John Swinhoe
Thinking that you might be called to priesthood can be a scary thing: the thought that God might have picked you, is daunting and frightening at the same time. I remember my initial sense of vocation as though it was yesterday. It was by no means expected and came as a massive shock to the system. But with encouragement and guidance of the church, we travelled together along the path of drawing out what God might be asking of me. The realisation that God might be calling me to the diaconate came when we looked at what ordained ministry is.
Deacons, like all ministers, have a calling that is distinctive. What’s different about deacons is the sacramental nature of the ministry. A deacon’s ministry exists as a kind of image for the rest of the church to look at. By their pastoral care and service of the poor, the weak, the sick and those oppressed and powerless as out-lined in ordinal, the deacon acts as an image of Jesus, who came among us as one who serves and who was moved to care for others. The deacon is ordained to care and serve in a Christ like way in the churches and homes and streets of the parishes and to be a living image of Jesus for others to see. The ministry of the deacon should also be in an image which shows the whole Christian people an example of service and care of others.
Training for ministry can be challenging, frustrating and exciting all at the same time too, as you come to terms with your vocation and an understanding and deepening of your faith. Class work is undertaken during the evenings, weekend residentials and summer schools. It is a demanding course over three years. Angela, my wife, our three children and two grandchildren can seem neglected at times, so time with the family must be set aside. It is also important not to neglect responsibilities in the workplace. I work for the global fashion label Burberry, within their Asset and Profit Protection team and thankfully, they have been very flexible and understanding toward my training schedule.

Phil Medley:
I am really excited about coming to Newcastle and serving the people of Walker. I am originally from Bradford in Yorkshire. I studied theology at St John’s College Durham before training to be a teacher. I then moved to London where I worked as a youth worker, a secondary school teacher and then as a Pastoral Assistant in Westminster. I’ve been really privileged to work in different areas and experience different types of Churches in my life. God provides such wonderful diversity and colour to his world and every region provides something wonderful and offers a fresh perspective on God. I’ve seen God work in my own life and the lives of others in amazing ways. He has lifted me out of the bad times and enormously helped my family. So when I responded to the calling to serve him as a minister, it was because I really wanted to share God’s message of hope to people and serve them in any way I can. I am looking forward to getting to know Newcastle more, to rekindle my love of Newcastle Brown Ale (in moderation), to visit St James’ Park and to see the amazing things God is already doing in this city.

Benjamin Carter
       I am coming to St Mary’s Monkseaton after two years of ordination training at Cranmer Hall in Durham. I am originally from Silverdale, which is village in North Lancashire on Morecambe Bay. I was an undergraduate at the University of Exeter, and then studied for a Masters at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge. This then led me to London and a PhD, after which I took up teaching posts at the University of Bristol.
       My real passion is music. I have sung in church choirs all my life; as a boy at Lancaster Priory, through various Choirs whilst I was at University, and finally as a Lay Clerk in Bristol Cathedral Choir. It was through this link that I first met Steph. She came to Evensong at Bristol Cathedral with some mutual friends. Steph is just completing her PhD, and does some part time music teaching in the Music Department of Newcastle Cathedral.
        When I felt the call to ministry the decision to move from one University and Cathedral city, to another in Durham was an easy one. Steph and I were married in Bristol Cathedral in the summer of 2009, and Steph moved up to Durham from Manchester to be with me. We were particularly happy to move back to the North, where we both have family roots. Since moving to Durham we have both fallen in love with the North-East, particularly all the opportunities it gives us to get out onto the coast, and into the hills for walking. We are delighted be moving to Monkseaton to be at St Mary’s, to serve with Canon Robin, and we hope that we will make the North East our home for the foreseeable future.

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