Our 2022 Candidates:
Our candidates for 2022 will be ordained at Hereford Cathedral. The service timings are as followed:
- Ordination Of Priests - Saturday 2nd of July, 4:30 PM
- Ordination of Deacons- Sunday 3rd of July, 10:30 AM
The service will be live-streamed on the Hereford Cathedral website, as well as on our diocesan Facebook page.
Ordination of PriestsSaturday 2nd July, 4:30 PM |
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Ordination of DeaconsSunday 3rd July, 10:30 AM |
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Deacon Biographies:
Below is a list of Deacons who are being ordained this year. We have explored each ordinand's journey into faith and we're delighted to share their personal stories here for you to read and learn more about each one:
Jonathan Roberts
Leominster benefice
I was steeped in Christian faith as a child, singing in the choir at Rochester Cathedral, and then serving for the midweek eucharist, once my voice broke. But a rebellious streak and deep-rooted curiosity meant that I spent a lot of time from my late teens on exploring every other religious tradition and spiritual practice I could find. But singing in church choirs again as a favour to friends and a radio broadcast of evensong for Ascension Day eventually reminded me of the distinctive and completely overwhelming idea that, in Jesus, the God who created the entire cosmos became a human being to welcome us home after all our exploration and satisfy all our curiosity.
I worked in music education for twenty years, teaching Indonesian percussion music in schools, universities, and community groups and also lectured in ethnomusicology. For a long time, this was what God was asking me to do with my skills but I gradually became aware of a nudge towards something else and went into the discernment process while working as a parish administrator and verger for my home church.
I’ve just finished two years of training on the context-based pathway at Ripon College Cuddesdon, which means that I was in college for three days a week, and working in a local benefice for two days a week. During June I’ll be moving to Herefordshire and after ordination will be serving as assistant curate in the Leominster Team Ministry with Guy Cole as my training incumbent.
I am looking forward to exploring the mix of rural and market town ministry, and learning how to serve God and my neighbour in those places alongside all of the clergy, readers, and people of the team
Linde Melluish
Hop Churches benefice
I’m Linde Melhuish: I live near Ledbury, have been a Reader in the Hop Churches Benefice and have been training for the priesthood at St Mellitus College, London. It’s now many years since I came to faith at university, when a friend of mine lodged with a vicar who, unknown to me at the time, had a quiet but extraordinary healing and deliverance ministry. John and his wife were delightful, amusing and down-to-earth people, who had returned to England from India, to minister in a small village not far from Cambridge.
When an acquaintance had a very serious mo
torbike crash and was not expected to live, or at the very least, would be in a vegetative state, I mentioned this to John, asking if he would pray. He commented that he was having a service of healing that evening and why didn’t I come along? Had I heard of healing by proxy, he gently asked me and went on to explain. So that’s what I did, tentatively going up to the altar rails and kneeling, whilst he laid hands upon my head and prayed quietly. The nearest I can come to explaining what happened next is to compare it to a sense of electricity absolutely flooding through me, yet somehow, it was in a loving way. I remember thinking, ‘If this is the power of God, who am I to doubt it?’ Within the next two weeks, the person he had prayed for made a full recovery – and I started my faith journey.
In my early 30s, I became a Reader in Gloucester Diocese – initially, I had been dubious about this when I felt God initially nudging me to explore this calling. Within one week, three different, totally unconnected people just happened to mention, had I thought of exploring being a Reader? So I sighed and began the process of putting myself forward for selection for training, supported by my rather gleeful vicar. And the rest, as they say, is history, serving in rural Gloucestershire and then Herefordshire. My career is in education and so many times, God has enabled me to bridge the gap between the sacred and the secular, as well as serving in my Benefice of 8 eight rural churches.
Just as when I was called to be a Reader, over time, a significant number of people, including my incumbent, remarked, ‘Why don’t you become a priest?’ For various reasons, it wasn’t the right time, yet that call quietly nagged away and when I did explore it with support from my Rector, a previous bishop felt I was too old to begin training! So by that time, disheartened, I had given up all thoughts of ordination completely when my incumbent declared she felt God really was calling me and that we should have one last try, as we had a new bishop who might see things differently.
So – never doubt our God of surprises! This is when I learned, via our DDVO, of the brand new Caleb Stream at St Mellitus - specifically designed for those of more mature years with significant experience in serving their churches and with professional leadership experience. What a blessing it has been and all I can say is that nothing is wasted in God’s economy and the way it has all come together has been wonderfully enriching. As one of the first Calebs, I take heart that Caleb was one of those who was over 80 when he reached the Promised Land & was hale & hearty at 85 - hopefully, I’ve many years to go to reach that milestone!
Richard Lonsdale
Pontesbury & Minsterely benefices
Hi there. My name is Richard Lonsdale. I'm going to be ordained deacon in July of this year at Hereford Cathedral, which I'm thoroughly looking forward to. In a nutshell, my story is this. I was brought up in a Christian family. I can't honestly remember a time where I didn't believe, I made a commitment to Jesus at the age of five, which I barely remember.
I made another commitment when I was about 12, and really throughout my life, it's a testimony of God's goodness to me. I ended up doing a theology degree at Bangor in North Wales in the 90s. But from that, weirdly, I ended up working in the insurance industry and did that for some 20 years. The crunch point for me was getting a posting to Singapore where I worked for about four years, and in that, I was living a tremendous, the enjoyable, fruitful ex-pat lifestyle in terms of material wealth and in terms of comfort and all the sort of things that you'd expect from working abroad.
And I really came to the conclusion that this was very, very empty. I was dissatisfied with it. I thought to myself, 'What do I do now when I get to the age of 65/70 and I retire?' and I look back on my life as just literally chasing after money.
And so there was a crisis there that took place, and I was able to be part of the ex-pat Anglican Church there called St George's in Tanglin. It wasn't ex-pat, it was a mix of all manner of nationalities, local Singaporeans as well, but it was where the ex-pats tended to go.
And that was almost like a lightning bolt moment where I partook in the liturgy and enjoyed the services and suddenly thought 'This is something that is eternal, life-giving, and something I'd really like to explore' which led to about ten or so years of thinking about things, moving around, moving back to the UK, the discernment process before studying at Ridley Hall, where I'll be finishing in about a week, which is why it's all a bit bare and gloomy in here.
Anyway, really looking forward to meeting you. Nice to see you and all the best. God bless.