Changing directions and countries two paths to priesthood

Interviewed by Beryl Rule

Carol Adam’s faith journey began when, at age 27, she was invited to a Christianity Explained course held in a friend’s home. Carol began to realise there was more to life than she’d imagined, and after two years, wanting to do some kind of Christian work, she changed her Building Society Management job for a position in the Extension Studies office of Moore Theological College. Here she was able to use the skills she had acquired in management, but she realised what she really wanted to do was work with people, in ministry.

“Leaving school at 16, I’d done no tertiary studies, and when I heard people talking about how hard theological studies were I doubted I would be able to do them. So, trying to run away from God’s call, I left the External Studies office and went to work for a missionary organization. When it struck me that I had gone backwards, and was now working with paper, not people, exactly as I had been with the Building Society, I gave in…”

She went to see the Principal of the (then) Deaconess House, and was told that she could enrol for a Diploma of Theology course, which would equip her for parish ministry. Four years later she graduated.

After serving as a pastoral assistant at Manley Vale for two years Carol transferred to Tamworth, in the Diocese of Armidale, in January 1998.

In Sydney it had not been possible for her to be deaconed but in Armidale things were different. She was ordained at St Peter’s Cathedral at the end of the year.

At Tamworth she met and married her musician husband. They bought a house on the coast and lived happily until, after four years, an offer came to Carol from a rector in the Diocese of Grafton.

“I hadn’t looked to be priested. It wasn’t an issue for me. But I knew they priested women in Grafton and the idea kept coming back into my mind. I had to think it through theologically, but finally I felt it was the right track for me to take.”

She had already applied to Grafted when a call came from the Revd Ken Holt, vicar of St Paul’s Boronia, in Victoria. This, too, she knew was “right”.

Carol approached her ordination in St Paul’s Cathedral Melbourne “realising more and more the incredible honour and responsibility of this next step in my journey. There is also a deep peace, because I am doing what I am called to do and being what I am called to be.”

Andy Goodacre was half-way through filling out forms applying for a Foreign Office position in the UK when he decided instead to spend a year continuing with ministry work. As a student at the University of Surrey, in Guildford, he had been setting up missional small groups. Not realising he was taking the first steps in a journey to the priesthood, he thought he would spend another year on this voluntary ministry.

At the end of that time, however, his local church asked Andy and a friend to start a new congregation for youth and University students. They agreed enthusiastically, and for the next three years Andy’s time was divided between campus work and church planting.

This experience brought him to realise he was actually engaged in a called vocation: he had been doing it and being affirmed in it before he had recognised this was for life.

It was an exciting time for the Church of England. The Mission Shaped Church Report had been released and the Church was looking to ordain pioneers who would be entrepreneurial and lead new and old congregations towards fresh expressions of their faith.

“Our training wasn’t really very different from what it had always been but that didn’t worry me. I was glad of the formal theological teaching,” Andy said.

Growing up in a Christian home, he had attended always church and as a teenager had “not had a bad worship experience”, but certainly hadn’t felt there was much connection between what happened on Sundays and a vibrant faith. Now he was keen to try new things.

Putting out feelers for a curacy, he received an email from his friend Ian Weaver, vicar of St Matthew’s, East Geelong, who shared his enthusiasm for fresh expressions. “Why don’t you come here,” Ian asked.

It was the next step, and Andy, his wife Liz and daughter Olivia took it in 2008. Andy accepted a position as assistant priest at St Matthew’s, and is also doing part-time chaplaincy work at Geelong High School.