People are being invited to consider God’s call on their lives during Vocations Sunday on April 26.

Each year, on the fourth Sunday of Easter, the special service takes place across Church of England churches – including in the Diocese of Truro.

It is a time created to prompt people into having conversations about how they can serve as Christians.

Isaac McNish, Head of Ministry at the Diocese of Truro, believes discerning God’s call is a year-round and lifelong process, but added ‘having a moment when the whole Church turns its attention together to the question of calling and response is significant’.Open hands praying with an orange/brown background.

He said: “Vocations Sunday is a moment to pause and reflect on something that lies at the very heart of what it means to be the people of God.

“Vocation is not simply about particular ministry roles, it is about God’s call to every person, and our response to that call.

“To ask, ‘what is God calling me to?’ is one of the most profound questions any of us can sit with, and it goes to the very centre of what it means to be formed as a disciple of Jesus Christ.

“In that sense, vocation is all of our business, it belongs to the whole Church.”

Lydia Remick, Lay Ministry Development Officer at Diocese of Truro, said: “First and foremost, our vocation as followers of Christ is to live a life that attracts others to the faith and points to the risen Son.

“Micah urges us above all else to ‘do justice, love kindness and walk humbly’ while Amos tells us that what God wants is for justice and righteousness to roll and flow from our lives.

“Out of these things passions and gifts will form and grow, helping us to discern where each of us might be called into different vocations and ministries.

“Above all else though, our primary vocation should be looking at how what we do points others to our creator and Lord, Jesus Christ.”

 

How people found their vocations:

 

  • “It’s difficult to describe, but I felt God speaking to me very powerfully – not in an audible voice, but I heard a single word: ‘ordination’.” The Revd Jonathan Huff, an Oversight Minister.

 

  • “I was sat on a swing in Ilkley in York, and I rarely hear God speak in a clear voice, but I heard him say ‘I want you to be ordained’.” The Revd Mark Wade.

 

  • “I felt called to working for the church having been a teacher.  I had certainly never considered this would be the route my life would take when as a teenager I used to pray, ‘take me and use me to do your work’.  Becky Lines, Families Leader at Camborne Cluster of Churches.

 

  • “In my 20s people would ask me, ‘when are you getting ordained?’ … when I was in Tanzania, I started to sense I was being called to ordination. “ Revd Grace Kanungha.

 

  • “As I have listened to God’s call and tried to discern where the Spirit is moving, and what I should be doing and being for him, it became clear that God was calling me to take another step in ministry.”  Mrs Debbie Harris, Deacon

 

 

Resources for Vocations Sunday can be found here: Vocations resources and events | The Church of England