The Psalmist penned that God ‘redeems your life from the pit’ (Psalm 103:3). Scholars will chirp the original context infers spiritual-analogy; though my lived-experience has suggested that the childhood faith found and fostered in the back-street ex-mining village church within a high deprivation pit community has provided the character, resilience, and competency required to navigate and add value to the world while enjoying a life far bigger than anything I could have attained elsewhere.
Covid changed everything
After studying an undergrad degree in applied theology, I worked at a church in Sunderland City Centre until the role was made redundant at the end of the covid pandemic. The aftermath also included the termination of a postgraduate course, having nothing to show for it other than further student debt. Perhaps providence led to securing two jobs concurrently; becoming the operations manager for a local community project seeking to creatively address social and food poverty, and the Christian Chaplain at an Immigration Removal Centre during the peak of political will attempting to send people on chartered flights to hotter climates. I vividly recall leading the provision of the late Queen’s funeral service on-site; in hindsight, the absurdity of asking people to honour the passing of the head of state while being in the same state that is actively trying to deport them was a hard sale.
Applying to be a Royal Army Chaplain
After joining Northumbria Police’s Strategic Independent Advisory Board, the workload became unsustainable; rather than juggle streams of employment, I applied to be a Royal Army Chaplain, leaving other paid work behind. The ‘Relay Bursary’ grant covered all tuition fees and allowance towards maintenance. I applied to Cranmer Hall, which manages and allocates the funds on behalf of the Relay Bursary. This enabled me the opportunity to correct the perceived injustice of this postgraduate debt with a fully funded MA in ‘Theology and Ministry’ at Cranmer Hall (St John’s College).
Durham supported me
Durham University has supported me in ways I couldn’t have imagined at the time of enrolling. During the first six months, I became the chair of Northumbria Police’s Strategic Independent Advisory Board, alongside being offered a commission for the Royal Army Chaplains Department. The only drama was that the course started in May, not at the end of Durham’s academic year. Cranmer Hall staff accommodated this request and I deferred two modules to the next academic year, meaning I could, as an interim to my Durham MA study and graduate at The Royal Military Academy: Sandhurst.
Challenges overcome
The two twilight modules have endured further challenge. The British Army recently penned a news article on me being their youngest Padre (Chaplain) living in a tent close to the Ukraine border.
From an academic perspective, the immense online resources Durham University affords students enabled me, even in a ‘heated tent’ circa 15 miles away from a war-torn country, to continue reading for my dissertation alongside digitally participating in module lectures.
I’m not sure many Universities would have the capacity or heart to support their students as much as I have been helped. As for my future life goals, my ‘it is not in the Bible but feels close to being biblical mantra’ is ‘do not kick down the ladder once you have climbed it’. I hope and pray that through my faith, work, and public service, I can help others enjoy the apparent magnanimity of life that, in many ways, was against the odds of happening for me.
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