Erica Payne is due to be ordained as deacon on Friday 27th June, 2025, in Truro Cathedral.

Here she speaks about her journey to this moment of ordination, which takes her from America to Oxford to Cornwall:

“I was born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, where my parents were church planting,” Erica says. “From a young age, I understood what it looked like in practice to love people on the margins and create a church that’s welcoming to all.

“There was a lot of poverty and homelessness in the city, and I was a part of a church that sought to share the good news with all.”

Erica, whose family has many pastors in the Pentacostal church in America, says her parents shared stories of how God provided for them in difficult times while she was growing up.

“They showed me what it meant to be fully committed to following God and sacrificing for Him,” she says. “My extended family also exemplified life lived with God and this had a huge impact on me. I am very grateful for their example.”

When she was 12 years old, Erica’s family moved to England and lived in Oxford so her father could study a PHD. He was later ordained as a priest in the Church of England.

She remembers seeing poverty during this time.

“I grew up spending time with friends on the local council estate,” she says. “My friends’ lives seemed miles apart from the people who went to my church. The families in my church were wealthy, many of them attending private schools with high aspirations, whilst many young people at my school were struggling to pass their GCSE’s. I couldn’t see what relevance the Bible had in my context or how to bridge the gap.”

In her early 20s, while studying a Youth and Community Work with Applied Theology BA, she found her faith and day-to-day life merge.

She says: “I would pray and read my Bible throughout my childhood, but putting my faith into practice seemed too much of a stretch. As a youth worker, I was now a role model, and I knew I had to change in order to pursue this career.

“In my childhood I went to church because I had to, but as an adult I found I wanted to.”

“I discovered a passion for church, teaching, sharing my faith, and supporting those in need. I enjoyed being strategic and leading.”

She stayed in Burford, near Oxford, for eight years working in the local community.

“This was when I first explored a call to ordination,” she says. “Though I loved the church, I was drawn to reach those outside of the walls and create new ways for people to access faith – such as a young adult’s evangelistic dinner in the pub and church services outdoors to engage the local council estate.”

After meeting  her husband Sam, also a youth worker with a heart to reach people in low-income areas, they moved to a council estate on the edge of Oxford.

“We raised our daughter, Isabel, there for five years,” she recalls. “It was tough living and working on a council estate, but I learnt a lot about being a church in and for the community and creating cultural expressions of faith exploration.

“I knew there were many more people from low-income backgrounds who did not feel they had access to church, and I wanted to play a part in changing that.”

Erica became a trainer for a charity equipping youth workers and church leaders to develop ministry in areas of deprivation. This led them to Cornwall. They moved to the county in 2021 working to create The Dockyard.

The Dockyard is a project focussing on developing safe communities, seeking housing solutions and growing a church which is accessible for families on low incomes.

Erica concludes: “In Cornwall, I re-engaged with the discernment process and each year my calling has become clearer.

“I am a pioneer, seeking new ways of connecting with those currently unreached by the church. I hope to grow many accessible expressions of church and support other local leaders to reach the unreached.”