We had a quick chat with Deborah to find out more about her, her plans for her time at Bradford Cathedral, and more about the scheme.

Could you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your background?
I grew up in a Christian family and I guess that all became more real to me when I reached the end of my time at university, and I started to think about the future and what I wanted to do.

Because of my husband's job, I’d been over to Poland for six months doing work with a very small Anglican Church there and, when that came to an end, I came back to the UK and worked briefly as a teaching assistant. Then, during that time, I applied for this Ministry Experience Scheme.

Based on my time in Poland and what I feel God has called me to do, I need to explore that a bit further and see where it takes me.

What was your experience like in Poland?
It was a tough time, as well as being enjoyable, because I was getting to know a different country and exploring a different culture, and it was my first taste of leading things in church.

For instance, I led the entirety of the services (in English) over the course of a month so I preached, led prayers, led the liturgy, and I was the only person there who was leading anything, which kind of threw me into the deep end a little bit, because before then I had little experience of any of those things. I hadn't preached before, but I really enjoyed that and I think that's one of the reasons why I knew that I needed to think about this further.

You are taking part in 'The Ministry Experience Scheme'. How did you get involved with this?
It’s been something that I've known about for quite a while, and I’ve been looking at it on and off, feeling that maybe one day I'm going to do this at some point! I guess that it wasn’t really the right time until now, so I applied in the Spring and got a positive response at the end of May.

I wasn't actually originally planning on doing it this year, because my husband still works in Poland, and I was thinking of going back to be with him so he didn't have to commute during the week, which is what he currently does, but I felt that several things were prodding me to not do that and to go and do this scheme.

Could you explain what being part of the scheme involves?
It can be different to different people, but essentially, it's a year to experience ministry within the Church of England. Some people might focus on different aspects of ministry or all of the different aspects of ministry, so some people might come into it and be more interested in the youth work side of it, or they might be - like me - interested in thinking about ordination in general.

The scheme is a chance for young people, such as myself, to think about what their next step might be, and to think about whether they want to be involved full-time in a church and, if so, in what capacity in the future.

What are your hopes for your time at Bradford Cathedral?
It's been on my heart to think about going into ordained ministry, and I'm spending this year really thinking about that, and thinking ‘is this the way forward for me?’. I've started on the discernment process, which is a process by which you work out, with the help of some people in The Church of England, whether ministry will be right for you in a more official capacity.

I haven't had any of the conversations yet but I have submitted the forms to get that going. This year I'll be doing discernment and working here side-by-side, thinking about it in a more theoretical way, and also in a very practical and lived out way by being here and having an experience of ministry in Bradford.

And will you be preaching a sermon as part of your time here?
I'm hoping I will do so at some point!

Finally, what message would you like to give to the congregation to introduce yourself?
I'm just really excited to meet you all, to get to know you, and see where this year takes me. Thank you for having me and I'm really glad to be here!