Who am I

I am an Australian living in the beautiful Wye Valley in Wales, UK. Chepstow is where I currently call home, where the River Wye meets the River Severn.

What are the most important things about me?

First and foremost I seek to follow the way of life that the person of Jesus of Nazareth, invited us to follow in the Gospel accounts of his life found in the Christian Bible.

These are the various ways I have shaped my life to try and best live according to the way of Jesus, the way of grace and love of self, neighbour and enemy:

I am a member of the Anglican Third Order of the Society of St Francis (A Franciscan). In my opinion St Francis is the person who best exemplified the way of Jesus since Jesus himself. He is my mentor and inspiration. He was able to love and be fully present with the most marginalised and dispossessed people of his day and this echos my heart and desire too.

I am both a Contemplative and Activist. Through my contemplative practices of silent and nature meditation I seek to see things more clearly and beyond the surface of the material reality, to see the world and all its issues through the “loving gaze of the Divine”. It is from this foundation I seek to follow my call to action in the world. To act to bring about Justice, Peace and Reconciliation in the world. As Martin Luther King Jr. said “Justice is what Love looks like in public”. And like Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, Leo Tolstoy and St Francis following in the example of Jesus, I am committed to radical non-violent action against the hate and injustices of this world, in the hope of affecting change.

In seeking to follow Jesus’ invitation to love my neighbour, I have come to see my neighbour in the broadest possible way. This has led me to the realisation that my neighbour is not just the whole of humanity, but all of creation, particularly other sentient creatures. Therefore following a vegan way of life has become inseparable from my understanding of what it is to follow the way of love that Jesus called us to. Echoing St Francis in his Canticle of the Sun, that we are brothers and sisters with all of creation.

I am a student in Open and Relational Theology. For me this theological approach best makes sense of my lived realty of faith and relationship with God and others. “Open” eludes to the future being open, not yet determined and it is our choices now, both individually and collectively, that help shape the future reality. “Relational” is that God’s very nature is relational and not distant, as expressed in St John’s first letter “God is Love”. That both God and us are changed and shaped by our relationship.

I am an ordained priest in the Church in Wales, which is part of the Worldwide Anglican Communion. I currently serve as a Team Vicar in the Severn Wye Ministry Area and based in Chepstow.