‘I am a 27-year-old woman training to be a vicar and I have hope for the Church of England’

Although fully aware of the ’pitfalls and general sense of fatigue with the Church of England’, Hannah Stephenson-Kelly could not escape the call to become a priest and has some encouragement for those feeling disIllusioned with the Church.

A few months before the world went into lock down, I had two startling words from two women who I was being mentored by. They both felt that God was speaking to me about entering into ordination in the Church of England.

They didn’t know each other and neither of them had ever mentioned it before, so when both of them gave me the same word at either side of the same week, I knew it was time to listen.

Two years before I had received a similar word from a friend’s mum who had generously been praying for me as I stepped out of University and into the working world. Where two years ago I had laughed at the idea, this time I knew that I was ready to hear God’s call.