When did you study at St Mellitus College and in which programme?
I studied for a Bachelor’s degree in Theology, Ministry, and Mission on the ordination track in 2021 at the London Centre, and I was ordained last year, in 2024. Prior to this, I was an intern at a church in London, and we did a term of Beginning Theology, so I had a bit of a taste of St Mellitus before I went into ordination training with the college.
How did you hear about St Mellitus?
I heard about St Mellitus mainly through word of mouth, from people I knew who had trained there. I was always really encouraged by what I heard about the college.
What are you doing now vocationally?
I’m one year into my curacy at St Aldate’s in Oxford, and I’m involved in lots of different things across the church – pastoral care, groups, baptisms, getting involved in all sorts. It’s honestly been such an amazing year. I’ve been blown away by what God is doing—the way people are coming to faith and the speed of it. We’ve seen miraculous things: young people having dreams, and people literally walking in off the street and, by the end of the service, saying, “I want to become a Christian.” I’ve been blown away by the things I’ve seen God do in the last year, and we’re thinking through what it looks like to disciple people well.
I have the privilege of doing baptisms and I’ve felt like I need to increase my upper body strength because of the amount of people I’ve been baptising. Two weeks ago, we baptised 15 teenagers in the morning and 7 adults in the evening. We’ve been doing baptisms every 5-6 weeks, which is not what I anticipated, but it’s been amazing. I never expected to see some of the things I’ve had the privilege to see and be part of.
Looking back, how would you describe your time at St Mellitus?
I always loved that people were coming in from all different contexts and different parts of the country, whether it’s a Monday in London or at a residential. I love hearing what God’s doing across the country, joining the dots, and seeing how I’m part of the bigger story. I also loved learning from others about how they were doing things—like, “Oh, that’s interesting, you’re leading a home group in this way,” and so on. I absolutely loved that and felt it was a big part of the training at St Mellitus, especially with the context-based approach.
I also really enjoyed being able to draw connections between theology and ministry in a very live way. I can think of times when I learned something in a lecture, and then the next day, in an Alpha group, someone would ask a question—say, about the people of Israel—and because of what I’d learned in my theology lecture, I felt more confident to give some sort of answer. I regularly noticed what I was learning being brought into ministry during the week and had conversations with my supervisor about that as well. St Mellitus has given me an ongoing desire to learn—to keep learning about God, the study of God that leads us to worship—and it’s given me a growing appetite for that, as well as a deeper love for the Church in general, with all its different parts.
As a church leader, how has studying theology shaped how you lead, teach, or pastor in your current context?
When I presided over communion for the first time, I remembered writing an essay during college about what happens in the Eucharist—is it a memorial, is Christ really present? I remember really reflecting on that as I prepared to give communion for the first time. Because of what I have studied and what I understand is happening, there’s a real weight to what I’m leading people in. I also really believe that Jesus is present, I wouldn’t land with transubstantiation, but I do believe Christ is really present as we do communion. So, I think I'm drawing connections between what I’m doing in church and a deeper understanding of what’s happening and why we do it, both as a church leader and as a church in general.
In what ways did your time at St Mellitus prepare you for the real challenges and joys of leadership in the Church today?
With the context-based training, you’re already in ministry, so you begin to understand both the joys of being so close as God works in people’s lives and the real challenges of that as well. There is opposition, and you feel that as a church leader. Being part of ministry and leading ministry during training gives you a real understanding of what that’s like. I remember feeling stretched during training, balancing study and placement, and thinking, this feels stretching. But what it helped with was learning what I can prioritise, what I should give my time to, and how to delegate what others can do—time management, really—because in church leadership there are so many competing demands.
Why would you encourage someone to study theology?
Someone said all theology should lead us to worship. As Christians, as people who love God, we’re made to worship and enjoy him. I think when we study theology, when we study God, it leads us to awe and an appreciation of who he is, and that naturally leads us to worship. I think it also helps us have a right view of who God is because we come with so much baggage and so many lenses that shape how we see things. Studying theology gives us space to really know who the Christian God is and what he has been like throughout history, to gain a greater understanding of who God is, and to lay down our misconceptions and the things we impose onto him. Theology helps us with that.
