St Ed's
The Website of
St Edmund's Parish Church
Roundhay, Leeds, England
Articles - Miscellaneous
Welcome
On 18th September we were very happy to welcome Rachel Wood as our new curate. Rachel has agreed to write a few words of introduction for this month's magazine
Hello! I'm Rachel, I'm 30 years old and I've just finished 2 years as assistant curate in the parish of Attercliffe, Darnall and Tinsley in Sheffield. I've come to St. Edmund's to finish my training and get a wider experience of the church before I have the responsibility of my own parish.
I was brought up in Teesside where my parents still live and went straight from school to do my first degree in English at Birmingham University. As my degree came to an end I had no idea where to go next, so I joined a USPG Root Group scheme for a year, near Walsall. It was here that I got my first sense of calling to the ordained ministry through the work I was doing with the vicar and congregation in the parish but also that year the synod voted for the ordination of women to the priesthood and I felt the synod's yes as a yes to me personally and a challenge. But at 22 I also felt too young and wanted to test this sense of vocation. I moved to Manchester and took a Community Arts Course; I then worked in Moss Side at a community café run by the Methodist Church and in Rochdale at a day centre for people who were homeless. While working in Rochdale I followed the selection process for training for ordination and when accepted in 1996 started my training at Queen's College Birmingham for 3 years.
My last parish was very different from St. Edmund's. It's located on the east side of Sheffield in the Don Valley, once the steel producing capital of the world but now very run down. I was involved with two churches, one a local ecumenical partnership and another with an average attendance of 25 on a Sunday so I'm looking forward to the welcome, support and challenge of a larger congregation and hope to settle in quickly to the life of St. Edmund's and wider parish.
Rachel Wood
http:/www.stedmunds.roundhay.org.uk/misc/wood.htm
© St Edmund's Church, Leeds
Last Revised 30 September, 2001