Answering the call...

JEREMY Cooper is the latest ordinand from the diocese to become a deacon, having trained on the Newcastle Diocesan OLM Training Scheme for the last two years. Prior to that he had trained and ministered as a Reader in the Parish of Morpeth. He is married to Deirdre and they have one grown up son recently married. Jeremy is a science teacher in a secondary school in Gateshead and Deirdre now works as a librarian in the Northumberland County Library Service.

Jeremy says: "I have long felt a calling by God, initially to teaching but over the years had begun to ask if He was calling me to serve further. I applied to be a Reader, was accepted and undertook the Diocesan Reader Training programme and have been ministering in Morpeth since 2000.1 have enjoyed this ministry, leading worship, being involved in adult training within the parish, preaching and wrestling with how to live out my faith in the work place. However a thought at the back of my mind kept resurfacing - the call to ordained ministry refused to go away. I tried ignoring it, running away from it, closing my ears to it, pretending that God couldn't possibly mean me and thinking that I must have misunderstood. In the end I decided that this itch would have to be scratched.

"Having discussed the options with the DDO, my family and some members of the parish I decided to put myself forward for selection as an Ordained Local Minister. That is, one who is non stipendiary, self supporting and licensed by the Bishop to a locality, in my case the parish of Morpeth. I felt this was the right thing to do because the ministry would involve a Local Ministry Team who would be working collaboratively with me on ministry issues and priorities within the parish, identifying and developing the gifts of people and so developing every member ministry. The added bonus for me was that the training would be undertaken through the Diocesan Local Ministry Training Scheme which involved working part time, evening and weekends on topics that were related to my expertise, needs and took into account any training that I had already done. In other words I wouldn't have to repeat any modules that I had ready done for the Reader Training programme.

"The training has been hard work, especially the latter half of this year, whilst I was also trying to give sufficient time to my family and to school. Part of this training involved an enjoyable and rewarding practice helping out at the Wansbeck Hospital Chaplaincy, mainly on Sundays.

"I hope that in the coming year I will be able to find time to be who I am, time for my family, time to do some of those neglected jobs around the house, time for photography and time to explore more closely how to put my faith into practice in the work place as well as to become more involved in regular parish ministry. As the OLM I hope to be working closely with those in the town involved with young people, exploring how God is calling us to get alongside them. I hope to be continuing the work I have been doing with adult education through Emmaus, Alpha groups, preaching and exploring how God is calling the LMT to develop other aspects of ministry."

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JEREMY Cooper