Alfred Jennings has been announced as our new curate for summer 2023.
We are really excited to announce that in the summer next year we will be getting a new Curate (trainee vicar): Alfred Jennings
Alfred will be coming from his studies at Trinity College Bristol and has a background working in churches and with CAP (Christians Against Poverty) in their head office in Bradford.
“It was easy for me to get excited about joining your Church family”
Alfred Jennings
Alfred says: “It was easy for me to get excited about joining your Church family, and getting to know you all and the parish!” He was raised in the Isle of Wight as part of a “Big, messy and beautiful family” with 8 brothers and sisters, and spent his childhood sailing and camping, he tells us that he finds “deep joy in anything that is outdoors and a bit adventurous, especially if it involves fire, the sea or mountains!”
Whilst being brought up in the south Alfred is no stranger to the northeast having spent two years in Bradford with CAP and having lived in Shotton Colliery working with churches across East Durham. “When I moved to Bristol to train for ordination” he tells us, “I always knew that God was calling me back up north.”
“I always knew that God was calling me back up north.”
Alfred Jennings
Reverend Paul Arnold, vicar at St Paul’s, shared his excitement too, “It was a real pleasure to meet Alfred and to hear his story. He comes with a fantastic set of experiences and skills that God has given him to reach out to the people who need to know Jesus. I can’t wait to see him flourish in ministry here in Stockton and I know he will be an asset both to us during his time here, and to the wider church.”
As a curate Alfred will be working with a particular focus on reaching out to those that don’t yet know Jesus, and he is thrilled to be a part of what we are doing here as we seek to be the beating heart of God’s love in Stockton: “My experiences of Jesus meeting people on the edge (including myself) have given me a passion for building community that is open to all; where anyone can come and discover that they are deeply loved. As a church, St Paul’s is already doing that and I get the privilege to join in.”