|
 Introducing James, our Vicar.
I was born into a farming family in 1954 in Devon and was schooled in Crediton and then did the B.Ed course at what was St, Paul’s College, Cheltenham (now the University of Gloucestershire) in the mid 1970s. This is where I met my wife, Jill and I still have links with Cheltenham, not only with friends who live there but through my work as a Clergy Fellow of the University Foundation. The 70s are now regarded as the greyest of times which saw mass industrial strikes, the three day week and power cuts but I can say that I had a brilliant time as a student ! I managed to spend a time at the end of every academic year travelling overseas and still emerged debt free. You can’t do the same today unless you have a generous benefactor.
I then did almost 15 years teaching in secondary schools in the Midlands but was called into the ordained ministry in the autumn of 1989 sponsored by the Bishop of Birmingham. My ordination training was done at Ridley Hall in Cambridge, a place noted for academic rigour and being open evangelical in character. By then our family had grown to five and so they ‘did time’ with me as I moved around. In 1992 I was ordained Deacon in Birmingham by Bishop Mark Santer and served my title at St. Michael’s, Boldmere. A year later, as is the custom, I was ordained Priest in Birmingham Cathedral. In 1995 I became vicar of Torpoint in Cornwall, a place which served the Royal Navy and where I was an Honorary Chaplain at HMS Raleigh. After a short Incumbency there I took up the post of Vicar of Shottery in 2001 and have been happily serving God in this corner of the vineyard for almost a decade since then.
Over the years I have been drawn into following the incarnational model of mission and ministry. What I mean by this is that I believe God was and is totally present in the life of Jesus, and as we are baptized into Christ’s body I believe we can regard the Church itself as a continuation of the incarnation, which means that our values, our words and our behaviour must be as Christ-like as possible. When people outside the Church look at us they judge us not by the words we speak but by the kind of people that we are. Of course, the Bible teaches us that we have all fallen short of God’s standards and that we are all sinners, so we will fail quite a lot. There are no perfect churches because there are no perfect Christians. But If we truly believe that we now ‘incarnate’ Christ we will seek forgiveness and restoration with God in order that we may honour him. That is why frequent celebration of the Eucharist is helpful in reminding us of God’s amazing love, of his grace freely offered and of Christ present to forgive and nurture his people. All this, I guess, puts me on the sacramental/ catholic side of the churchmanship see-saw but I could not minister without drawing extensively on the Bible, which is where my devotional life is grounded, and which shapes my doctrine of God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
One of the things that really energises me in my work as a parish priest is encountering people in the community who are open to thinking about the Christian faith, and, by getting to know them, to draw them towards the love of Christ. This focus on community life is one of the strengths of Shottery St. Andrew’s but we always need to stay open to foster contacts with a wider cross section of people. This keeps our common life buoyant and me on my toes ! An emphasis on community has seen us organize a Fun Day with the Salvation Army, which attracted 500 local residents with little previous contact with the Church. It led on to a nativity procession at Christmas 2008 through the streets and a half-term holiday club in 2009. We have also inaugurated a weekend in which we celebrate a Heritage theme, swelling our ranks and raising the Church’s profile in a positive way, and this seems to be growing year after year.
In the future my hope is to see more and more lay people offering themselves as leaders : to give pastoral care and support across the Parish; to lead worship and prayer; to teach discipleship in small groups as well as to preach; and to grow into the fullness of Christ as human beings. Enabling the gifts God has distributed amongst all of his people to be put to good use is absolutely central to the future health of our church. There are plenty of challenges too : finding a language that resonates with the unchurched, renewing the congregation so that there are younger people in our fellowship to carry on the work, and deepening everyone’s faith (clergy included !) so that discipleship and full blooded stewardship are the norm for all of us. There is no doubt that there are many good things happening in Shottery St. Andrew’s and much fuller details about what we are like will be found by exploring the website.
Finally, we are all incredibly blessed by having the energetic and ever creative Clodagh Mallison as our Webmaster, and I want to record my personal gratitude to her here for the great work she has done to make our website so user friendly.
James Warren
August 2009
| |
|
