In January 2012, after a long process of discernment, I was accepted as an ordinand by the Church of England. I am now in full-time training to be a Priest. I began my training at the Queen’s Foundation in Edgbaston in September last year. It is a wonderful experience to spend time with other ordinands and to share thoughts and experiences.

In college we study many varied topics including theology, the history of the Church and the development of faith throughout the last 2000 years. My last assignment considered gender and spirituality and how these differences might form our relationships with God. My favourite assignments concern the Christian faith and what it is we believe about the nature of God; as a whole body but also as individuals. I enjoy writing assignments as they enable me to develop my beliefs and form my future ministry.

If I speak in the tongues of Google and of LinkedIn, but do not have love, I am a noisy ringtone or a nuisance call. And if I have blogging powers, and understand all mysteries of code and all knowledge of hashtags, and if I have all Facebook, so as to ‘friend’ many, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my PayPal balance, and if I hand over my smartphone so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Despite the cold Spring weather my wife and I ventured to other parts of England recently. We visited York and Durham; once there of course a Curate has no option but to visit York Minster and Durham Cathedral. They are both ancient buildings, a visible expression of Christian faith. They are full of intricate webs of masonry, shimmering windows of stained glass, and small side chapels with tapestries and paintings. All created for the enlightenment of the faithful Christian worshipper; words cannot really express the wonder they inspire. The Minster and the Cathedral tower above the surrounding buildings, the bells still call the faithful to prayer, they stand as monuments to our Christian heritage.

What we may wonder are the monuments of our society, how do we express our values? Perhaps it is shopping malls that best encapsulate the values of modern society. Temples to our modern obsession with consumer goods; to have more and more possessions is apparently the fulfilment of modern life.