Yesterday at the main service at St Helen’s Church in Abingdon-on-Thames, the following announcement was made:
‘We are delighted to announce that our interview process last Monday went well and, subject to legalities, we can announce that the Revd Dr A. K. M. Adam, known as ‘AKMA’ by one and all… will be joining us within the next few months (licensing date to be agreed soon).
AKMA trained for ministry in the US, at Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, and earned a doctorate from Duke University, pouring his energy into theological education for the life of the church. He and his wife Dr Margaret Adam, a theological ethicist, look forward eagerly to beginning his ministry in Abingdon.
AKMA writes …
‘I began my ministry focussed entirely on serving in parish life, but during my training, my advisors steered me to an academic vocation. After thirty-plus years ministering to students and colleagues while teaching biblical studies in seminaries and universities in the US, Scotland, and England, I have finally learned enough to come home to parish life.
I eagerly look forward now to supporting the Parish of Abingdon-on-Thames, helping Fr Charles and Fr Paul, the wardens and PCC of the Abingdon churches to cultivate the deeply rooted, joyous faith that draws congregations ever closer to the God whom we revere and praise, to Jesus who has taught us a way of faithful life and worship, and the Spirit who holds us together as sisters and brothers adopted into God’s expansive family.’
I’ll be the Associate Priest, with particular responsibility at St Helen’s, but (I reckon) helping out Fr Paul at St Michael’s and St Nicolas’s as needed. The specific contours of my role haven’t been agreed at this point, nor when I will begin, but Margaret and I are deeply relieved that the interval of our heightened precarity has ended.
Plus, I ran my 1.7 this morning, said my prayers, fruit and crumpet breakfast, and will shortly turn to working on a couple of articles that I’d like to pin down before I’m full-on at work in Abingdon.