Reflections
“Our primary purpose is not formal testing, but ensuring that God’s plan is given the best chance…there is one ministry – the ministry of Jesus Christ. Examining chaplains are part of the process that enriches that one ministry, whether ordained or lay,” says examining chaplain, Dr Helen Lancaster
Reflections
“Sometimes going to the hairdresser can be unexpectedly life-changing. For about a year, people in my community had been urging me to explore a calling to ordained ministry. However, when my hairdresser, who is not religious, said, ‘You know what? You should become a priest!’, I knew I had to start paying attention,” says Melissa Conway, who is soon to be ordained a deacon and appointed as assistant curate at St James’, Toowoomba
“When I was 15 years of age, I decided that I wanted nothing more to do with the Church…The Rector of that parish would sometimes refer to me from the pulpit as ‘that angry young man in the fifth row’. Some years later I was invited to preach at Fr David’s funeral and would credit him, in part, for fostering my vocation,” says Bishop Jeremy Greaves
“I would not be where I am today without those critical vocation conversations – with the caring Society of the Sacred Advent sisters, the insightful parish priest and the wise friends. God uses ordinary people like you and me to initiate conversations of encouragement,” says The Rev’d Canon Sarah Plowman on her call to the priesthood, as Vocations Month continues
“When I arrived at the evacuation point, I found Fr Dan Talbot talking to a Police Inspector – the police had decided to form a convoy of police and public vehicles to bring everyone down the mountain safely, and we were just waiting for the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services to give them the okay,” says police chaplain Jane Vines, who served in the recent bushfire crisis
The Rev’d Canon Sarah Plowman shares about her role as school chaplain at Cannon Hill Anglican College for Vocations Month this September: “The part I enjoy most about being a priest is hearing people’s stories…sometimes in talking to them I can help change their lives, and sometimes they help change mine.”
The Rev’d Max Lambourne, priest at St Alban’s Anglican Church, Wilston, talks about his vocation to priestly ministry for Vocations Month this September: “I walk alongside people. I meet people in the joys and fragility of life.”
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