Thirteen new ordinands from across the Diocese of Winchester begin their training this month. They come from many different backgrounds, but all share a sense of calling from God to ordained ministry.
Last week, they came together for welcome drinks at Old Alresford Place and were joined by our three Bishops and two new Archdeacons. Prayers were said for the ordinands and their partners as they embark on two or three years of training at several different colleges.
Bishop Philip said, “This is a great sign of something significant happening in the life of the church, in the life of the diocese and, of course, in the lives of these people. All of them are in the course of exploring, discovering, growing into God’s call on their life, particularly to exercise ordained ministry, to serve the church and to serve God’s world. It’s incredibly exciting to be on that journey.”
Hear from some of those starting their courses this month…
Rich Aston was an officer with Hampshire Police for 31 years reaching the rank of Detective Inspector in serious and organised crime.
I came to faith as a 24-year-old while I was in the police. I was in a Methodist church and then spent 15 years as an elder at a congregational church. I felt called to ministry for the whole time, but it wasn’t the best timing. I never thought I’d do more than two years in the police and I did 30. God’s timing was that I stayed in the police until I finished my career.
Coming towards the end of my career, I began thinking about going into business, and received a message from a retired colleague, who I met for coffee. It turned out that he was ordained after he left the police. He said, ‘I think you need to do the discernment path’. I had no idea what that was, so he told me to talk to my local vicar. That vicar said, ‘I think you’re being called into the Church of England’ and two and a half years later, here we are.
Over 20 years of looking for an opportunity to be in full-time ministry, no doors opened. Then when I wasn’t looking, every door has opened! I’ve moved into a Church of England church (Ringwood Parish) and am serving there. It felt like we’d come home.
The discernment process was amazing. Every Christian should be allowed to do a discernment process. It gives you such an opportunity to review your faith and to see where God is calling you. It’s such an open process. It never felt like a job interview. It was so different to all my experience of employment. If every Christian could do a version of the discernment course to find out where God is calling them to, we’d be a church on the move.
I’m excited to start the training and learn loads and see where God is going to challenge me and transform me over the next two years. I am amazed to find myself here. I’m amazed that God has opened those doors and incredibly excited to see where the next stage goes.
Hannah Hiscock spent 18 years working in children’s nursing and as a community children’s nurse.
I was taken to church as a child and have always felt God’s influence on my life.
I got to a point where I had many roles in my church as a lay person and was still enjoying my role as a nurse, but I felt I needed to change and I didn’t quite know what that involved.
I heard about a job in Children and Families Ministry in the parish close to where I lived although not a church I attended. I realised that was the job I needed to do and the change I needed to make.
In February 2023 I moved out of children’s nursing and took up a job as Children and Families Minister at St Francis Church in Valley Park, and it was the best decision I’ve ever made.
I’m quite an anxious character and I moved out of nursing with such peace and a sense that this is what I’m meant to be doing. I have found a church that is amazing and everybody is so kind, generous and supportive. Throughout that, I was encouraged to look at what might be next and where God is calling me.
Alongside conversations with my vicar, I had a picture of winding roads and a road sign that said, ‘Hospital Chaplaincy’ and felt God was pushing me to explore that. I became a pastoral visitor with Southampton Hospital Chaplaincy team, and I felt like this blended my old and new world well.
I’ve been volunteering there for two years and I think that was where the call to ordain ministry came, being able to use my gifts and my work history, my love for God and my love for people.
I went through discernment. It was quite an intense process but at each stage I felt like I was being carried through it, with various people who helped, supported and encouraged me.
It has taught me a lot of patience, that God will provide and that it is God’s timing. The doors have opened at each stage, and I now find myself about to embark on training at Trinity College in Bristol as a full-time ordinand.
I’ve finished my job in the church which was sad but I’m grateful that I have the opportunity to be full-time and to have that focus. The college has been amazing and has put a buddy system together, so I’ve met people who were at this stage last year and it means that I feel a bit more relaxed. It’s a really exciting moment to say, ‘this is for you God.’
Cas Bending felt called to ministry at the age of 17 and studied theology at university.
In the final year of my degree, I got very ill and I was diagnosed with multiple auto-immune conditions, which are chronic illnesses with no cure. Initially, my symptoms were quite extreme.
My plan had been to go into RE education before moving into ministry, but I felt I couldn’t do that with my illness. I gave up the idea and went into a career in IT instead, but that call refused to go away.
Over the years, as my health became more stable, I started getting involved with my church, initially an evangelical church, then an anglo-catholic church. I did some occasional preaching and pastoral care. I started discerning in 2018, but my health and other personal situations felt like obstacles and that the door was firmly shut. Again, God’s voice never went away.
I was encouraged by my church to look at licensed lay ministry. I submitted all the paperwork and went to panel but all of them, including Bishop David, felt my calling was for ordination and recommended I began the discernment process again. It was affirming for them to say that to me. I felt like there was hope. They understood my concerns and worked with me through those. It felt like all those doors were slowly opening and the path was becoming clear.
I’m always going to worry that my health will flare up and that things will go wrong, but I feel like that is a very small voice these days compared to how large it had been before. I went to Sarum College for summer school and it was a whirlwind of meeting people and studying, but it felt right and that this is what I’m meant to be doing.
I’m excited about getting stuck in and to see where this is going. I still don’t know exactly what I’m being called to but, when I was first called at 17, I felt this phrase in my head which was, ‘I have a role for you’. I have this belief that there is a ‘Cas-shaped’ role that God has in mind for me and I am capable of doing. God is not calling me despite my illness and everything else. He is calling me as a whole person and those are part of who I am.
Vicky and Giles Tibbitts are both starting ordination training, having been through discernment at the same time. They have three young children.
Vicky – When I was in my early 20s, our vicar asked if I could imagine myself on the other side of the altar. Being that age, I put the idea to the back of my mind but over the years there have been little hints and nudges along the way.
The big turning point for me was three years ago when I felt called to leave the employment I’d been in for 18 years. I felt God calling me away. I left work and quickly fell into working for our church and I ended up filling in my shared discernment process forms. As the process has developed, I have found myself feeling that this is a genuine calling.
When I got the ‘yes’ at the end of the process, the excitement inside me made me realise this is right. I’m so excited to start training. When the essays come, I’m sure I will calm down a bit but for now I’ve been to Summer School at college, and I loved it.
Giles – I think in my heart of hearts, I’ve always wanted to go for ordination, but I’ve always looked at clergy that I know and thought ‘I’m nowhere near their sort of league’. Two years ago, we were away and I remember praying and hearing God’s voice saying ‘I don’t need you to be anyone else. I don’t need you to be like that person who’s a good speaker or that person who always knows what to say in a prayer. I just need you to be you.’ So, I filled in the discernment process forms.
Vicky – Timing wise, I say to people, ‘I think God’s got a great sense of humour that this has ended up with us both training at the same time.’ For us, and for many people, vocation is a very personal thing. It’s a call on our lives as individuals rather than as a married couple.
With that in mind we have deliberately chosen to study at different training colleges which is also helpful for childcare because we need to bear in mind practicalities as well. It will be strange going through the training at the same time yet doing different things along the way.
If we get ordained, we’ve already got some ideas about how we will manage family life, but we’ll see where God leads us and it’s very exciting. I think it’s a good test of our personal faith, to put our trust in him.
Giles – We don’t think God would have called us to do this at the same time if it wasn’t workable and it couldn’t be done. We just have to trust him more as we go.
I changed my job at the start of July to go part-time, so I’ve been enjoying a quiet summer but since Vicky began her training last week, I want to get started now. My college term doesn’t begin for three weeks but I’m chomping at the bit to get going.
It’s very easy to worry about the changes that are coming and there’s more complexity because we’re going through it at the same time, but I think it is just a bigger test of faith and we trust God through that.
Please keep all thirteen ordinands and their partners in your prayers as they begin this new chapter and explore where God is leading them.
