It is a real pleasure to be writing this introduction and to anticipate the beginning of my time with you all in November. I am very much looking forward to joining you as your new vicar, along with my partner, Miranda, and our dog Mimi (who has already visited the church and declared her satisfaction with it by singing along to the organ!)

We have spent the past three years in Headington Quarry, where I have served my curacy at Holy Trinity church – the worshipping home of C.S. Lewis. In addition to learning about church life and my own ministry, I’ve particularly enjoyed expanding our ministry to children, young people, and families; developing the many and varied gifts of the church community; and creating worship that is warm, inclusive, and rooted in tradition. I’ve also been privileged to lead Holy Trinity through the last nine months of vacancy, which has been a fantastic foundation from which to enter my first incumbent’s post.

Alongside parish ministry, I engage in academic work in the field of feminist trauma theology. This explores how our Christian faith speaks into experiences of pain and brokenness, and how God’s love meets us in those places with hope and healing. I’m really passionate about finding ways to bridge the gap between academic theology – even at its most complex or abstract – and the day-to-day life of faith.

This is (in my rather biased opinion) the best job in the world! No other role combines tea and cake and deep questions, and music and tears and laughter, the way ministry does. I look forward, perhaps most of all, to the opportunities to get to know you: to share in the ordinary moments of village and parish life, to hear your stories, and to discover how God is already at work among you. I’m excited to celebrate and honour all that has shaped this community, and to look for new opportunities and ideas as we grow together. At the heart of it all, I hope to be a prayerful, encouraging, and visible presence in the parish, as we make this journey of faith together.

I am hugely grateful for the warm welcome I received on the day of the interviews, and I am excited to celebrate with you when I am officially installed on Wednesday 12 November.

With every blessing for the coming weeks,

Revd Emily Hockliffe Essex