Malvern Alumnae 100 Profile

MGC 1979 Leaver

I have taken a varied journey through life since leaving MGC. I went to Trinity Hall, Cambridge to read English, expecting this to be a stepping stone to a future life as a writer. During my first year,   I felt a strong call to be a Congregational Minister and so changed direction to read Theology for the last year of my degree. I then spent two years as a voluntary worker at an inner city Congregational Church in Birmingham, before attending a college in London for theological training.

I was ordained as a Congregational Minister in 1988 and began work in a church in the Yorkshire Dales. There were more changes to come, however, as I began to have an increasing sense that I should transfer to the Church of England. This was a big change and a complicated process, involving a period of discernment and re-training. Having moved back to Cambridge in the meantime, I was able to take up my education where I had left off, and completed an MPhil in Biblical Studies and eventually a PhD (published in 2007 as Walking on the Water: Reading Mt. 14:22-33 in the Light of its Wirkungsgeschichte).

I served my curacy at a church in Cambridge and then I worked for about a decade as a ‘volunteer priest’ in a city centre parish while writing in a freelance capacity for ROOTS church resources and completing four books of worship resources published by Kevin Mayhew. In recent years, I have begun writing full time. I have completed two novels and a scattering of poems. My fiction is not published yet – but I live in hope!

What does success look like?

Success is about finding a way to serve others through your gifts, which are as individual as your own fingerprint. Success is a quest for meaning, not a fixed destination.

What is your best piece of advice?

Embrace the adventure – never stop asking ‘What if …?’ As the poet Mary Oliver puts it, ‘Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?’