Imogen and her husband Jon will both be ordained this September at Wells Cathedral and will serve their curacies together in Trull. In an unusual and very modern arrangement, they will share the job and the childcare for their two-year-old son Barney. Imogen says, “As soon as we both knew that we would be on this trajectory, we knew that we both wanted to be in the same church. It was a really important part of our discernment and processes of thinking about being a clergy couple.
“When we started talking about doing curacy, we said we’d like to do a job share as we had Barney, so we knew we wanted to work part time and share curacy and then be around to do childcare as well. We’ve got quite a few friends that are clergy couples and some who met at college and so have become a clergy couple during training and then we’ve got other friends where one started and the other followed along. We’re still rare, but increasingly as younger people think about ordained ministry from a young age its more likely that people will meet at college or come to it together.
“It was a priority for us. We wanted to find a context that would be happy for both of us and the whole way through we have been so supported by the diocese. I think from the beginning of the curacy search we knew what we were looking for and it was just a question of finding context and a training incumbent that was happy to take on the ‘double act’. We both work Sundays and then we work three days in the week. And two of those days cross over. It is a juggling act, but we are getting there.”
Before she began her ordination training Imogen studied Politics at the University of Bath and went on to work for the local council and the Theos Think Tank in London. Imogen who grew up in what she describes as, ‘an exciting, vibrant church in Edinburgh, was confirmed at 11, but had a few ‘tricky teenage years’, before coming back to the church with a desire to, ‘know God and live life-giving God the glory’.
Her husband Jon was born in Bangalore in India to missionary parents and lived there until he was 12. Jon says this had a huge impact on his faith. The transition to life in England was, he feels, “a time of wrestling with God”, as he struggled with the culture-shock, but again and again Jon says, “God reminded me of his love for me and that God’s plans are the wisest of all, even when it does not feel like it.”
University was for Jon, a time of growing in his faith as he was given opportunities to serve in church and in Christian student groups. Before coming to ordination Jon studied biomedical sciences at the University of Bath and also worked in marketing for a pharmaceutical company.
Both Imogen and Jon are excited about their curacies. Jon says, “Having discerned a call to ordination at the end of my degree and now having completed the initial training, I long to continue to witness God at work in him and those around him, as I take up a formal ministry position for the first time.”