It’s never too late to respond to God’s call

16 September 2024

When exploring ordination, Jeff Graham was accepted onto the Caleb Stream Course, a new and innovative one-year discernment and formation programme for people over the age of 55 exploring self-supporting ordained ministry, on a part-time basis.

This is the first year that ordinands from Chelmsford Diocese have undertaken the programme and Jeff is one of five new deacons from our Diocese to have followed this pathway.

Jeff writes about his ordination journey:

“Are you Jesus?”, a curious and energetic 4-year-old asked recently as he looked up at me, while playing in our bright and spacious church creche area. “No!’”, I replied smilingly, “I’m Jeff, but I am a follower of Jesus.”

This simple event got me thinking that throughout our lives whether in ordained or lay ministry, we are simply trying to follow Jesus, loving God and loving one another.

I’ve had a happy and fulfilling career to date. Leaving school at 16, I entered banking, later to university, then a career in teaching and education and in the last ten years, one of tutoring and fostering.

That sense of God calling me to serve Him and others as a priest has been there since my late teens and it was only after a PCC meeting with our bishop on evangelism 28 months ago that I started the journey of discernment when in the middle of that night I woke with the words of 1 Samuel 3, ‘Here I am Lord!’ ringing in my ears. At the then age of 61, I thought I was probably too old.

However, after discussions with my priest and the diocesan vocations team I was accepted onto the Caleb Stream Course. After completing the course, the expectation is that you return to work in your own parish to minister as a deacon, and God-willing, a year later, as a priest.

Training involved joining others from other dioceses, attending Saint Mellitus College in Kensington, London every Monday, with an additional study week and two study weekends in Derbyshire. Inter-generational learning and worship with hundreds of ordinands between the ages of 20 and 80 has been amazing.

The long train journey each week of my course at the crack of dawn made me think, “Why did God have to make the morning so early?

I am looking forward to serving my curacy in my bustling, city centre, Anglo-Catholic home parish of Saint James the Great and Saint Paul, Colchester. I am both excited and humbled to be serving at the altar, praying the Daily Offices, and using my teaching and fostering background to lead on Christian nurture and pastoral care in the parish.

‘God is working his purpose out as year succeeds to year’ is one of my favourite hymns and reflects my 45-year vocational journey to ordination. God is calling each and every one of us, just as we are, to His service. All we have to do is say, ‘Yes, here I am!’ I have learnt that it is never too late to respond to God’s call.

Jeff was ordained Deacon on 14 September in Chelmsford Cathedral.

 

Find out more 

Inspired by this story?

To find out more about Ministry in the Church of England visit chelmsford.anglican.org/exploring-vocations. 

Our new Deacons

Read more about our new Deacons here..

We Pray

This article has been taken from the latest edition of WePray, our quarterly prayer diary which brings together our Cycle of Prayer and stories from across our Diocese.