Ministry Area Leader and Vicar of Coity, Nolton and Brackla with Coychurch
Although I was born in London, I grew up on Tyneside. My father was the local Presbyterian Church minister (now the United Reformed Church) so church as always featured prominently in my life. I have two older brothers, one a retired minister living in Herefordshire, and the other a consultant forensic psychiatrist
living in Canada. I left school after my A levels to study music in London and graduated with a Licentiate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (in clarinet playing) and a BA(Hons) in Music Education. For more years than I care to admit, I was a VMT or Visiting Music Teacher, teaching the clarinet in both the state and private sectors as well as running a successful private teaching business with my husband in the UK and in Australia. For many years I was Head of Wind and Brass at a large independent girls’ school in Oxfordshire. We have two children who both now live in Cardiff with their other halves. My daughter is a community nurse and my son is a jazz musician. The call to serve simmered from childhood when I accompanied my father on his pastoral visits to a geriatric hospital and gradually that call became insistent. It’s a long story with more twists and turns than a mini-series and I’m happy to repeat it to anyone who wants to listen! The exploration of my vocation took me to London University where I successfully completed my MA in Pastoral Studies. Still exploring, my next journey was into studying psychotherapy and counselling which is now channelled into pastoral counselling and vocations advice. With the call ever-stronger, I was accepted for training to the Anglican ministry and studied at Cuddesdon Theological College in Oxford. Since ordination I have served in a suburban parish in Reading, an urban parish comprising two large housing estates in Oxford and a semi-rural/rural united parish of four churches in South Oxfordshire. Along the way I undertook further study in Sarum College, gaining my MA in Christian Liturgy. Lockdown this year has enabled me to learn more about virtual worship and communication through modern technology, but above all, my greatest interest is people and how each of us experiences God’s call on our lives. For the wider Church I am a vocations’ advisor and spiritual director, and am a member of SLAC (the Standing Liturgical Advisory Commission). Although I’m English and married to an Australian, we adopted Wales as our own 11 years ago and love living here. I’ve been learning the language for a couple of years, but although my reading of it is coming along, please don’t ask me to speak it yet! In love, I hold the people of Bridgend in my heart before God daily.
Team Vicars
Vicar of Newcastle
Greetings to the saints in the 7 churches who stand (physically) beneath the Cross of S. Illtyd’s on Newcastle Hill. The first incumbent of this church is named as Fr Gilbert in 1153 – I’m Fr David, the priest here since 2003. I was born and raised on two council estates in Cardiff; Gabalfa / Mynachdy. My first foray into worship was at Immanuel Baptist Church on the estate and I’m pleased to see that they are still an active presence today. On leaving school I became a laboratory technician at the Welsh National School of Medicine but having become involved in pathology photography, I went on to run the Reprographic Unit for Mid-Glam County Council. Later I joined the family (in-laws) Electrical Engineering company. NOW… although I enjoyed and loved all three careers, it became obvious to me, and the people I knew, that I would never be happy unless I did what God was calling me to do. By this time I was churchwarden at S. Peter’s Anglican Church and had a lovely home in the parish and church under the pastoral care of the late Curate there, The Rev’d Fr Mervyn Morgan. Fr Mervyn sent me to see Bishop +Roy Davies (will we see such a Father in God again?) whose first words (well second really) to me were, “Ah David, I’ve heard a lot about you.” And from then it has been a joyous 20 odd years of serving our Lord’s “flock”. I had a wonderful assistant curacy in Newton, Nottage & Porthcawl, which was just the place for a “traditionalist / Anglo-Catholic” like myself, as spiritually I feel a close connection to the early church as described in the New Testament and the Early Church Fathers. And I try to lead and teach as well as I can, those things which bind us to the Apostles, as well as making them relevant today.
Vicar of Laleston and Merthyr Mawr with Pen-y-Fai
Roger was born and brought up in the back of beyond also known as the Afan Valley an ex-mining community. He left home at 18 as there was no work in the valley and travelled to Blackpool and then London where He entered catering and became a Commis Chef. After marrying his wife Kim he moved into credit control/sales ledger/export as catering hours meant he saw little of her. Returning to Wales in 1990 and Kim having a serious illness and operation which took a year to recover from he became a house husband and completed a City and Guilds level 3 in business management and IT. His calling which came in 1995 is too long to write here but involved scripture, God’s poking him and people telling him he should be a priest (including one person in a garden centre who he had never met calling him Vicar).
He trained at St Michael and All Angels Llandaff, was deaconed in 2000 and priested the following year. He has served in Caerphilly (title parish) with particular responsibly for the Penyrheol estate, Bridgend, Llanharry and until now in Llangeinor and the Garw Valley. He spent ten years as part/half time hospital chaplain to the Princess of Wales and Royal Glamorgan hospitals. Following this he was posted to the parish of Llangeinor and the Garw valley which became part of the Pedair Afon Ministry Area before returning to the now Pen-Y-Bont Ar Ogwr Ministry Area, Bridgend.
Licensed Lay Ministers
I was born, and grew up, in Brynmawr, Breconshire (before local authority reorganisation). My family moved to Bridgend just before my eleventh birthday. I attended Brynteg School and then went to the University of Bath, where I read Physics. I then went to Exeter University to gain my PGCE. After teaching in Devon for two years, I returned to work in South Wales. I married my wife, Alison, in 1985, in Saint Crallo’s, my sons were Christened there as well. We have lived in Bridgend and Coychurch ever since. I retired a few years ago, and spend my time reading, listening to music and trying to keep the garden under control.
I was born and brought up in Wrexham in north east Wales, at that time a market town surrounded by agriculture and heavy industry. I also spent time in Dolgellau and in Kinmel, close to Abergele on the North Wales coast. I never lived anywhere but Wales until I left to go to college in London during my late teens. I returned to Wales in my early thirties, albeit to South Wales but knew straight away that I had come home. Wales is in my heart and my heart is in Wales and I could no longer imagine living anywhere else. I had one parent who was a congregationalist and one who was an Anglican and in my growing years I moved between the two. The denominational differences went over my head. I discovered that God attended both services! I am the daughter and grandaughter of a GP and always imagined that I would follow in their footsteps. God clearly had other plans, He definitely closes doors and opens them, possibly aided and abetted by my six year old self who decided that maths was a total bore and I would give it minimum attention. I went to boarding school at the age of eight, transferring at secondary age to a school run on strict evangelical lines. Here I learned the importance of prayer and daily times with God. I learned to find my way around the Bible and at the age of thirteen I committed my life to Christ. I also learned that faith has the power to heal, but that misplaced religion can harm. My secondary education was a bruising time and my late teens and twenties were my wilderness years. I veered between abandoning church altogether or dipping in and out with little real commitment. I entered the one profession that I had vowed never to enter and became a teacher, ultimately working with children with behaviour problems. Having returned to Wales, I eventually settled in Pen y Fai recommitting myself more as time went on. Thank God for the long piece of elastic that he holds us on and for praying friends. I started to attend diocesan Renewal Days organised by the then diocesan renewal team. During the 1990s wafting via the Toronto Blessing, the winds of the Spirit blew into Wales, an exciting time which changed lives. It was during this time that our then vicar suggested that I become a Reader. As a divorcee, I was initially rejected but God opens doors. It was during this time of waiting, that I learned that my primary commitment must always be to Christ, whatever else is happening around me. Currently, we are living under covid. I believe that we have been given this time to draw closer to God and that in repentance and rest is our salvation, in quietness and trust is our strength. Is 30:15 We shouldn‘t rush to get busy again for the sake of feeling as though we‘re doing something. I believe that there will be a move of God. One verse that jumped out at me at the start of this epidemic was
Ps 46: 10 Be still and know that I am God, I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.