My new position as Ecumenical lead for Churches Together in Essex (part of Churches Together in Essex and East London) feels like a very natural extension of the ecumenical work I have been involved in for over 32 years and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to reach out to the ecumenical groups across the beautiful County of Essex.
When reflecting on my journey as a Christian, I can see that it has always very clearly had ecumenism at its centre.
I grew up in a village in the Fens in Cambridgeshire and attended an Anglican Sunday school and later took my first Holy Communion and Confirmation in the Catholic Church. I had a life-changing encounter with Jesus in an Assemblies of God church whilst a student in Sheffield. On returning to Cambridgeshire, I attended a Baptist church plant and married my husband Mark who was a Methodist. In the 1990s, I worked for the Jubilee Centre in Cambridge with Dr Michael Schluter. Whilst there I had the privilege of working with Christians of all denominations and we worked together on the Keep Sunday Special Campaign, Credit Action, behind-the-scenes peace initiatives in South Africa and the formation of the Relationships Foundation. During this time, I attended an Assemblies of God Pentecostal church in St Ives and was very involved in our local Churches Together in St Ives and Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire.
For the last 23 years, I have co-led an Assemblies of God Church in Basildon, Essex with my husband Mark, and we have both been actively involved in Churches Together in Basildon. This has developed into a thriving united work reaching out to the local community in many practical ways.
I am a natural bridge builder and love connecting people to the right people. My heart is to see people finding a church that they can call ‘home’ and where they can thrive and flourish in their faith. Seeing churches working together to achieve more and to reach more people with the good news of Jesus is at the heart of all I do. I am also passionate about the church being inter-generational and seeing both generations and denominations working together.
Learn more about Churches Together in Essex and East London.