It would be so much more interesting had I led a
colourful life. I could say that my father was a White Russian
prince and my mother a gypsy tango dancer from the Argentine, and
having l led the life of a debauched buccaneer, was dramatically
converted.
The reality is that I was born in Southampton and I have one
sister. My parents have died. I became a Catholic when I was 18 and
went to university where I read Law. While I was at university, I
felt called to the priesthood but for a long time I said, "No".
Eventually I gave in and Bishop Derek Warlock sent me to the
English College in Rome where I studied philosophy and theology. I
was ordained on December 18, 1971 at St Edward's in Chandler's Ford
in Hampshire.
My first appointment was as assistant priest to Canon Joseph
Murtagh in Maidenhead and during my time there I started the new
parish of St Edmund Campion. I was parish priest there for 3 years
and bought the land on which the church was later to be built.
Bishop Anthony Emery then appointed me the diocesan financial
secretary and I chaired the diocesan schools' commission, which
meant that for 6 years I was not in a parish, but was the diocesan
civil servant. For about 3 years, I lived in Fr Keenan's presbytery
in Southsea. This was a time of fun because he had a great sense of
humour.
As I preferred to work in a parish, I moved to Aldershot where,
at the end of 6 years, Bishop Crispian gave me a 3 month
sabbatical.
I lived in a small
community of adult mentally handicapped people in northern France,
part of an organisation called L'Arche which was founded by Jean
Vanier. His idea was that the handicapped should live as normal a
life as possible. And so, with two young French women (I never told
the bishop that!) we looked after one man and two women who were
handicapped. Our aim was to create a home life and I think we did
this very effectively. I had wanted in this year to do something
very different from the normal life of a parish priest. I learnt a
great deal about how relationships work on the unconscious level as
well as the conscious.
Returning to the diocese., I was at St
James' in Reading where I stayed for 10 years. In this time I was a
prison chaplain and also chaired the diocesan child protection
team, which was stressful and unpleasant work, but it was work that
had to be done to protect children and young people.
I also did a 2-year course on spiritual direction, and this is
work I like doing. I like the combination of spiritual direction
and psychology. I think that we relate to God in the same way we
relate to others. Above all, we share our feelings and hold nothing
back. The more I can admit my feelings to God, the quicker and
deeper my friendship with God grows.
Because the work on child protection was hard, the Bishop agreed
to my having a second sabbatical and for a year I lived in Lisbon
in Portugal where I helped a local parish and did some retreat
work. I had hoped that I would have had a good winter away from
England, but we had the wettest winter on record with, at one time,
half of Portugal under water!
I used this year to think about how I would be a priest and so a
lot of what will happen here in Wokingham will be the fruit of that
year away. Again, I returned home and for a year I was in St
Joseph's, Basingstoke, before I came here.
What I would like to achieve here is to build on
the work of my predecessors, Fr Wallace and Fr Keenan. I would like
to develop the role of lay people in the Church by giving them
authority. I hope to do some adult education work because I think
we all need to look at our faith in a different way from what we
learned as children. One way to do this is through groups. I also
strongly believe that our life of prayer needs support and I think
it is good for people to have a spiritual director.
I am here for anyone who would like to talk about their faith
(or lack of it) and prayer life.
What we do now as a parish, we do together. We don't know how
the Church will be different and how it will change. It has changed
a lot in my lifetime. It is important that we are a strong
community with our eyes fixed on the mission that Christ gave us:
"Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News".