2021: David & Hannah excited to be joining Falmouth’s team
Among the people being ordained as deacons during Petertide are husband and wife David and Hannah Baylor.
The couple arrived in the diocese during the G7 having moved from Oxford to take up curacies in Falmouth.
David, who has a degree in Chemistry from Oxford University, says he is excited to be part of the Falmouth team and to be joining them as they continue to develop their Transforming Mission community.
David’s journey to ordination started in the Baptist Church, where he regularly attended with his family. “I made my own decision to follow Christ at the age of seven. Doing my Bible study one evening, I read a study note that said ‘why don’t you give your life to Jesus?’ and I just felt that was right.”
Unlike many teenagers, David didn’t move away from his faith and says he cannot think of a time when he didn’t have a Christian identity but it was during his time at university that his faith came into itself.
“It was at university that I began to experience Anglicanism. I was in Oxford and I decided to go to one of the Anglican churches which was charismatic and evangelical and something I was familiar with. From the moment I arrived I was moved by the rich history of the Anglican tradition. The liturgical worship combined with contemporary style really struck me.”
David said it was around this time that he was beginning to have the first inklings of a calling to Christian ministry. “I didn’t do anything about it at first but I could see myself doing some kind of Christian ministry long term.”
Leading his college’s Christian Union built on that. “I guess part of my journey was that I really enjoyed leading at my Christian Union. I enjoyed sharing faith stories and communicating the gospel and decided it was something I really needed to think about more.”
With David’s sense of vocation emerging, he says the real key turning point was following a ‘church weekend away’. With the sense of calling to ordained ministry growing, David asked God for some affirmation that it was what He wanted him to do. “It is fair to say that at every moment of teaching or worship or music during that weekend I felt I was being spoken to. At the last prayer ministry time that weekend I felt God very much affirming that ordination was what I should do. I came back and spoke to my rector and then the Diocesan Director of Ordinands.”
Following a year at St Mellitus, David spent three years at Wycliffe Hall in Oxford and it was there he met his now wife Hannah.
The couple started looking for a joint curacy and this led them to the Diocese of Truro where both will be based at King Charles the Martyr, All Saints, and New Street churches in Falmouth.
“God is never dull!”
Hannah says that she is really looking forward to working across the three churches in Falmouth. “God is never dull and I am really excited about working with the congregations and helping them uncover what the call of God is on their lives. I’m looking forward to being surprised!”
For Hannah, ordination is the culmination of events that began in childhood.
“It’s one of those things where I can look back and completely see God laying the crumbs for this path.”
Hannah, who comes from a church family, says she can remember at the age of 10 leading a group for other youngsters at her church and thinking how right it felt. “I remember when I was 12 or 13 just being struck by the thought ‘I’m going to work for the church when I am older’. And then when I was 14 I did my first sermon and I remember someone asking me about ordination!”
Hannah went on to study Theology at university where people continued to ask her whether she’d considered ordination and she admits it was something she’d considered for later in life. “I was a young, single, charismatic evangelical woman. I didn’t know anyone who was ordained who was like that and I just thought maybe I would think about it again when I hit my 30s.”
But following a move to Oxford and arrival at Wycliffe, Hannah suddenly saw young women who were training for ordination. “Seeing myself reflected in these people, I think that’s when I realised it really could happen and that the church would accept me.”
On June 25, Hannah will be accepted into the church as a deacon alongside David and four others.
