Electrician set to be ordained (From Gazette Series)

Electrician set to be ordained

A DURSLEY electrician is among 22 candidates being ordained in Gloucester Cathedral at the weekend.

Ian Gardner will be ordained as a local minister to work in the parish of St James the Great and St Mark's, Dursley, and will be licensed to serve only within that parish.

He will be joined by Craig Bishop, assistant curate at Thornbury and Oldbury with Shepperdine, and seven others from the Gloucester diocese, who will be ordained deacon on Sunday.

Tomorrow 13 candidates who have already spent around a year working as assistant curates in their churches, will be ordained priest.

They include Jennifer d'Esterre, non-stipendiary curate at Sharpness, Purton, Brookend and Slimbridge, Sheila Fisher, non-stipendiary curate at St George, Cam, with St Cyr, Stinchcombe, and Tim Heaney, curate at St James the Great, Dursley.

The ordinations will be conducted by the Bishop of Gloucester, the Right Rev Michael Perham.

Clergy and churchgoers from throughout the diocese will pack into the cathedral to support the candidates as they enter into the Church's ordained ministry.

As curates and assistant curates, the new clergy will work alongside incumbent priests, many learning 'on the job' for several years before they take on responsibility for their own parishes. Others may choose to remain as curates, particularly if they are non-stipendary clergy, who are not paid for their church duties.

Bishop Michael said all those being ordained as priests and deacons will be a welcome addition to the diocese and to the wider Church.

"Just to know that I shall be ordaining 13 priests and nine deacons this year is in itself good news. That they are candidates of such quality adds to my confidence about the company of ministers we have," he said.

Since Wednesday evening, the new priests and deacons have been taking part in a residential ordination retreat at Glenfall House in Charlton Kings, led by Bishop Michael and Bishop Peter Vaughan, the retired bishop of Ramsbury in the diocese of Salisbury.

For the new priests, Sunday will be a special day when they will have the opportunity to celebrate their first Eucharist.

The Rev Tim Heaney (Curate at St James the Great, in Dursley)

Tim initially trained as a chartered accountant, specialising in charity finance. He worked first at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust at Slimbridge and then as director of finance and marketing for a hospice charity in Essex. He trained for the ministry at Trinity College in Bristol and is married with three daughters.

The Rev Craig Bishop (Assistant curate, Thornbury and Oldbury with Shepperdine)

Craig, 36, is a former primary school teacher. He received three degrees in Agricultural Economics from the Universities of London, Manchester and Exeter. He trained for ordination at Wycliffe College in Oxford to train for ordination. Craig is married and has a baby daughter.

The Rev Sheila Fisher (Non-stipendiary curate at St George, Cam, with St Cyr, Stinchcombe)

Sheila, 54, trained as a ballet teacher and then trained and worked as a physiotherapist before having her children and becoming a secretary in the building firm she runs jointly with her husband Roger. After moving to Cam, Sheila became involved in community voluntary work and spent five years as a churchwarden. Sheila and Roger have three grown-up daughters.

The Rev Jennifer d'Esterre (Non-stipendiary curate at Sharpness, Purton, Brookend and Slimbridge)

Jennifer, 56, is an assistant head managing a pupil referral unit in South Gloucestershire for adolescents with emotional or behavioural difficulties. She is married and has three grown-up children.

The Rev Ian Gardner (Local Minister, Parish of St James the Great and St Mark's, Dursley)

Ian moved from the Stroud valleys to Dursley in 1988. For more than 25 years he worked in social care alongside adults with learning disabilities, but returned to his original trade as an electrician three years ago. As a member of the Dursley Local Ministry team, he was licensed as a reader in 1999. He is married and has a grown-up son.