Having been initially reluctant to act on her urge to explore ordination, Angela Brown was ordained a priest at Truro Cathedral in July 2015.

Angela, who comes from Falmouth, is currently Assistant Curate at Redruth Team Ministry and lives in the town.

Angela said: “This does all feel like it’s something that has come a bit late. I think it was probably laying fairly dormant!”

Angela, a mum of two, grew up in a church family but admits that as she grew older it stopped being a priority. “I had a number of years away from the church. It wasn’t that I stopped believing, rather that it just didn’t seem relevant.”

Then about 30 years ago Angela started to explore her faith again. “It was once we had children actually. We were living just outside of Bath at the time and we felt it would be good for the children to go to Sunday school and so I started going to church again. It was then that I realised there was something missing for me and my faith wasn’t alive. That was the trigger for me to explore and to renew my baptism vows a few years later.”

Angela’s husband Colin, an artist, then became a Church Army Evangelist and the family moved to Sheffield in 1997. It was while in Sheffield that Angela became involved in Spirituality and Spiritual direction which would later influence her decision to go forward for ordination.

Angela and Colin returned to Cornwall in 2009. Angela said: “It was during this time that I began to wonder what I was going to do with the rest of my life. During a communion service at St Peter’s Flushing I experienced an encounter with God that felt like a calling, a nudge, to explore ordination. The effect being one of feeling at peace about now taking this step.

“I had been resistant because while working in the area of Spiritual direction I’d heard of the challenges and difficulties ministry brought and I really didn’t want to put myself in that place. I knew how tough it can be.”

Despite this, Angela felt compelled to move further down that path. “I have to say I have loved it and hated it! The training was challenging. I’m very glad I don’t need to write any more essays for a while! I studied locally with the South West Ministerial Training course because I had come home to Cornwall and I didn’t want to leave again.”

Angela completed her training course while living in Falmouth and then a year ago moved to Redruth to start her curacy. She said: “Going back into full time work has been challenging! This last year has been full of change, challenges, surprises and lots of learning. We have found people here in Redruth have been really welcoming but we are aware there are a lot of people struggling with life. In that sense it feels a privilege to be here.”