“My faith has become even deeper over the years…”

We have been sharing stories about the type of roles people play in the life of the diocese. In this piece, we speak to The Revd Dr Adam Dunning, Strategic Rural Dean.

 

An invitation to an early morning Service of Communion turned into a life-changing moment for The Revd Dr Adam Dunning.

In his 20s, Adam, now The Strategic Rural Dean (SRD) for Carn Marth Deanery and Rector at King Charles the Martyr Church, was aiming to become a barrister until a friend invited him to attend a church service with a free breakfast afterwards.

Thanks to this invitation, today he is the one standing behind the communion rail offering people ‘the life-giving body of Christ’.

Adam was raised in the industrial Black Country of the West Midlands to parents who went to a Methodist church. As a child he attended a Roman Catholic primary school where attendance at Mass was part of the weekly routine.  But in his childhood and teenage years, Christianity was more of an intellectual subject for him than a personal, emotional truth.

Adam left home to attend Oxford University and study a degree in Philosophy and Theology.

He recalls: “When I was in my second year of study, a friend of mine asked, ‘do you want to come to my College’s Chapel service?’ I laughed at him and said no. I then asked what time the service was. He said 8am and I laughed even louder. But then he told me there was a three-course served breakfast afterwards – so, of course, I got up early and walked through the streets of Oxford.

“When I arrived, the priest saw me as I walked in through the door. He said, ‘you are Adam, your friend said you would be here’.”

That morning, it was a Service of Communion. Having been confirmed at the Methodist church at 14, he chose to to take part.

He says: “Sitting there, it brought to mind all the times I had sat through Mass at school and I thought, ‘I remember this’. So, I went up to receive communion. The priest gave me the wafer.

“I remember him standing in front of me and presenting me with the chalice of wine. He looked into my eyes and said, ‘this is the blood of Christ shed for you, Adam.’

“Remember, that priest didn’t know me, but here he was welcoming me and using my name at the communion rail. It was as if he was fusing me and my life with something cosmic – the love and sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

“By the time I got back to my pew I had an image in my mind. Like CS Lewis, who said The Narnia Chronicles all started with an image of the lamppost – I had an image of myself wearing a clerical collar, living in Vicarage and leading church services.”

Adam hadn’t been expecting that to happen – he had mainly turned up for a free breakfast.

He says: “That image was completely not where I was going in my life – I was intending to be a barrister.”

But he adds: “I have never doubted the path.”

After graduating he worked for a charity for the homeless in Wolverhampton before studying for a PhD in Medieval Mysticism at Birmingham University.

Ordination in 1999 was another special moment for Adam.

He says: “The journey which began that day at the communion rail was completed.

“I was now doing it, doing what I felt called for. Called to share with people, feeding both body and soul, here I was a priest able to share with them the life-giving body of Christ.

“That university chaplain – Bill Sykes was his name – had stood at the communion rail and welcomed me, affirmed me and shared the life of Jesus Christ with me. And now I was doing likewise.

“That, for me, has been the bedrock of my vocation.”

Adam’s curacy was in Worchester, also where he got married.

Teaching and education have always been part of Adam’s vocation. Following his curacy, he taught part-time at an inner-city sixth form in Birmingham alongside parish ministry.

The next chapter for Adam was vicar of a medieval parish church in Peterborough for six years before becoming an educational chaplain in 2011.

He worked as a pastor, liturgist and educator in his role as Dean of Chapel at Cheltenham College, a boarding school where the chapel plays a central role in the life of the school community.

“I was working in a demanding sector and engaging with people who didn’t really go to church, as well as people from all over the world,” he says. “It was a great time.”

After 15 years there, he arrived in Cornwall. This spring he became an SRD with a number of different worship traditions within his deanery; from Anglo-Catholic to Liberal to Evangelical and Charismatic.

He says: “The whole, amazing diversity of the Church of England is present in one area of Cornwall.”

With a history of serving people from different backgrounds, he is looking forward to working with all churches in the deanery.

He says: “I couldn’t be doing the job I’m doing now without my past experiences.

“My faith has become even deeper over the years and more expansive and generous.

“I see my role as enabling each church to be the best church it is being called by God to become, within its own tradition and integrity.

“I am excited for the future. The communities of Falmouth and Penryn are enchanted places. There’s a clear hunger for something beyond the ordinary here. People are searching and our role is to lead them towards Jesus Christ and the fullness of life His kingdom offers.”