Heath Monaghan first felt God calling him to be ordained when he was 13. More than three decades later, on Saturday 26 June, Heath, 45, expects to be tearful during the ordination service at Portsmouth Cathedral, as he fulfils his lifelong ambition.Heath grew up in a coal-mining community near Durham and aspiring to be a vicar did not quite fit in with people’s expectations. “When I was 13 and being confirmed into the Church, I felt a calling to ministry,” said Heath, but “initially I ran in the opposite direction” he recalls, before re-discovering his faith in his early 20s.Heath’s career path has ultimately revolved around helping the Church to engage more with those who do not necessarily have faith.His new role will be as a ‘pioneer minister’, creating new worshipping communities in the Isle of Wight, designed for those seeking less-traditional styles of church. The first time he applied to be ordained as a clergyman, around 10 years ago, he was told to wait.But before finally fulfilling his calling to ordination, Heath has been pioneering mission social action projects and new worshipping communities, offering opportunities for people to explore the Christian faith. This had included starting up a café church, a church in people’s houses called Dwell and founding ‘Aspire Ryde’ – which involved transforming a large redundant church building into a thriving community hub – visited by thousands of people each week.Aspire Ryde has been especially busy during the pandemic, with the team offering food hampers and parcels to those in need, collecting prescriptions and offering phone support for those isolating.“I feel equipped and ready for what God is going to do next” says Heath, as he looks ahead to the future.
More than a thousand homemade flowers have been draped from a church tower to help raise funds for its renovation and upkeep.Alison White, 64, from Barley, Hertfordshire, came up with the idea to decorate St Margaret of Antioch church in the village in February.She said it had helped villagers come together during the "glum" early weeks of the third UK lockdown. Decorations were posted in from the US, Australia and across the UK."In February, we still had a long stretch ahead of us and we didn't know for how long we would be isolating and we were all rather glum," Mrs White said. "So I thought, what can we do together, but not together?"The retired art and textiles teacher decided making flowers from fabric was the answer, and galvanised the community to knit, sew, and crochet to create the Barley Flower Tower. "I thought we would get between 300 and 500 flowers but never 1,452," she said.Over a period of four months, artwork came in from the village, surrounding areas and abroad.Mrs White said she hoped people would donate to the church "if the work makes you smile" so the building could be "brought up to date". She said it did not have any toilets or an inside tap, "so if you want a coffee after a service someone has to take the washing-up home".So far £825 has been raised for the church.When the flowers that have "cheered a lot of people up and helped give them focus" are taken down in September, its hoped they will have raised £10 each, to have generated £14,520 in total. "We've got to know people in the village we didn't know before and it has brought us much closer together," Mrs White added.Reverend Canon Ruth Pyke said: "The generosity of people in putting so much effort into this beautiful creation has been wonderful. "I hope we will inspire people from the wider community or who pass through the village to stop, admire our hanging and give generously."
Our joint parish communion service this Sunday will take place at St Mary and All Saints Church, Dunsfold at 10am. All are welcome.With Reverend Ian Maslin stepping back from duties at the moment our celebrant at the Holy Communion service will be the Reverend Rutton Viccajee, assistant curate at St Nicolas Church, Cranleigh.Reverend Rutton has been with us before and we're sure you will want to extend a warm Dunsfold welcome to him.Unfortunately, we do need to extend an apology to those of you who are our online congregation. This Sunday we will not be able to offer a Zoom link to our service.However, work is underway to ensure that in coming weeks we will be able to restore the Zoom connections so those of you at home, in hospital or further afield will be able to be part of our growing congregation. We do want you to be part of our church.
Biblical Hebrew, studied by trainee priests, can often pose a challenge for aspiring ministers.For Rajiv Sidhu it posed more of a struggle – and led him to discover he was, in fact, dyslexic. That in turn taught him to look at how the Church communicates the Christian faith in a new way.Despite working as a Geography teacher for 10 years, it was only through Hebrew that he realised he needed special education support. Now, he has said that his own struggle helped him understand why others may find Christian teachings based on words, rather than symbols, can be challenging.Rajiv, 32, was raised partly in Malaysia with his grandparents and has taught in Dagenham and the Isle of Wight. “I had always assumed that my vocation was to be a teacher, although I now realise that you can have different vocations at different points in your life,” he said. Supporting his local parish already, Rajiv was encouraged by his priest to consider becoming a vicar. With support from the Diocesan Director of Ordinands, Rajiv explored his calling for a year before resigning his post as a teacher and beginning theological training in Oxford. He then completed a placement with the prison ministry in Malaysia. During his training, Rajiv studied biblical languages. He said: “It was my Hebrew tutor who suggested that I might be dyslexic, which gave me a deeper insight into myself. “We are all created in God’s diverse image - and this applies as much to our minds as anything else. What does this look like for Church? How can we include, welcome, and celebrate neuro-diversity in Christian spaces and places? We often shy away from the images and symbols in church, though these can be the most effective teachers of the faith.”Rajiv will, alongside six others, be ordained at Portsmouth Cathedral on Saturday, June 26.
