Revd Wendy Dalrymple

Missioner to the modern world

“I think for me it was always just going to happen. I was 14 when I thought hmmm I think I want to be ordained,” says West Yorkshire-based curate Wendy Dalrymple, giving a brief insight into her calling into fulltime ministry - summarised perfectly a couple of sentences later: “The biggest thing that’s at the heart of who I am is I care passionately about God, about the gospel, and I have a passion that it’s very relevant to the lives of people today.”

This mission to get into the heart of people’s lives drives her forward, not only to serve in the Church of England as a priest, but also to find ways to communicate the key messages of the gospel to a modern generation.

“I feel called to help reshape and remould the Church,” she says, “for a world that has changed so drastically to the world that the Church, certainly in this country, was formed in.”

No-one within her family and circle of friends is surprised that she is taking on such a task, as she was never shy about sharing her opinions and beliefs, particularly in class.

“I used to be the bane of the RE teacher’s lives at school,” Wendy says, "because I’d always have 20 answers, 20 more questions and could run rings around them.”

A wife and mother, the 32-year-old has no regrets about the direction her life is taking, but is aware of the need to balance a demanding role with family commitments.

“I think sometimes the sacrifice that I feel is that perhaps my family don’t own me in the way that they would if I wasn’t ordained in holy orders.”

One of her time-consuming challenges, as part of Mirfield Team Ministry, is to develop fresh expressions of church, “which really is about trying to use your imagination to think about people who don’t come to church - which let’s face it form the majority of the people in the parish in which I work - to think about how I can engage with them, how I can seek to develop forms of worship which are both meaningful to the faith and are also relevant to the lives of other people”.

Tongue-stud, body piercings, chickens and motorbike also define a modern woman who is starting out on a fascinating missionary journey of faith: “God calls me as I am and I just hope and pray that I bring all of that, and that God uses it, into his glory.”

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