Vocations
The call of God
All Christians are called by God – we are called to enjoy God’s love, and called to respond to that love in serving God and serving others in all our life. The Diocesan Vocations Team is passionate about enabling all Christians to explore and fulfil their calling. Another way of describing calling is to talk about ‘vocation’ (from a Latin word meaning ‘to call’). Vocation doesn’t just apply to those people who are called to ordination, or other authorised forms of ministry, or even to those who have jobs in medicine or teaching. All Christians have a vocation, we each need to discover and respond to God’s call in our lives. The Vocations Team is here to help.
Vocations Task Group
The Vocations Advisers work at a Diocesan level, organising events and resources, helping individuals to discern God’s will, and being available to parishes and deaneries to speak about vocation. They form the backbone of the Vocations Task Group.
Sue Faulkner (0191) 271 1866
Ian Flintoft (0191) 236 2280
Judith Grieve (01670) 817 220
John Park (01670) 511 662
We would dearly like to have at least one lay person on this Task Group – are you passionate about helping others to respond to God’s call? Then please call us!
Each deanery also has a Vocations Representative, whose job it is to keep the rumour of vocation alive.
Authorised Ministries
There are various forms of ‘authorised’ ministry within the Church of England – these include being a Church Army Officer, a Reader, an ordained minister, and a member of a religious order (a monk or a nun). For more information about these ministries, and the procedures for discerning such a vocation, go to the Church of England website.
There is also a website dedicated to young people exploring ordination: "call waiting".
Diocesan Director of Ordinands
Canon Audrey Elkington (0191) 2852220
The DDO is responsible for working with people who feel called by God into ordained ministry. It is important that this sense of calling is owned by the wider Church, as well as by the individual. The DDO co-ordinates and participates in the process by which the Church seeks to discern the calling. There are two assistant DDOs in the Diocese (Nick Chamberlain and Kevin Hunt), but anyone wishing to explore their sense of calling to ordained ministry, should contact the DDO in the first instance.
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