Revd Grace Kanungha is a curate in the Bodmin Team ministry and will be ordained Priest on Saturday 28th June at 10.30am in Truro Cathedral by the Rt Revd David Williams –Bishop of Truro.

It was while working in Tanzania that Revd Grace Kanungha first felt the stirrings to become an ordained priest – and on June 28 this call will become a reality.

The Bishop of Truro, Rt Revd David Williams, is due to conduct her ordination at the Cathedral in front of family, friends and colleagues.

Being brought up in a Christian home, Revd Grace has always known Jesus and as a child she regularly attended Holy Trinity Church, St Austell.

She says: “I grew up in a Christian family and attended a loving church. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know Jesus. I have also had significant moments – such as when I went on Christian camps or at my Confirmation.

“I always really wanted to do something with the church but didn’t know what. I didn’t think it would be possible, until at university I discovered I could be a youth worker.”

Choosing this path was confirmed when someone prayed for her and saw the letters SWYM – which stands for South West Youth Ministries.

Revd Grace went on to spend 20 years as a youth worker in a couple of different churches. During which time she felt called to go to Africa – specifically Tanzania.

She remembers: “I went on a short mission trip and then went a second time and took my youth group with me. I was in my mid 20s and when I got back, I felt homesick for the country – and I had only been there three weeks.”

She went back to Tanzania after meeting her husband who was a head teacher there. She carried on working with the Church Mission Society.

They returned to the UK in 2019 and Revd Grace became a Pioneer Youth and Family worker at St Martins, Liskeard, before embarking on the path to ordained ministry.

She says: “In my 20s people would ask me ‘when are you getting ordained?’. But I felt youth ministry was not the path to adult ministry. Then when I was in Tanzania, I started to sense I was being called to ordination. I had a look on the internet but felt overwhelmed. I thought ‘it might be coming, but not now’.”

She remembers later speaking to Bishop Hugh on a different matter, when the conversation popped up again.

She says: “Bishop Hugh said, ‘let me tell you what I think being a priest is’ and as he spoke it was like I was having a physical reaction to his words, like a punch to the stomach.”

Revd Grace, a mum of three, says she is now certain this is the path God has laid out for her.

She says: “God has confirmed it through many people and in many ways over the past four years.

“I am not perfect, holy or good enough, but my only job, as I understand it, is to point people to Jesus – and this is what I love to do.”

“I want to thank all the people who have prayed for me, journeyed with me and shaped me over my life. I am the person and minister I am because of you.

“Often, when I tell people I am getting ordained, they say ‘finally’.

“Please pray for Festo, Zephaniah, William and Hannah as they too go on this adventure with God alongside me.”