We are continuing the series of stories celebrating our soon-to-be Reverends from our Caleb Stream as we head towards their ordination on Sunday . Today's story comes from Ros Fox.
How was Ros called?
Church has always been a part of my life. I was brought up in the Congregational (later to become the United Reformed) Church, and attended Sunday School regularly. I also attended the village Church of England school and so developed a relationship with two contrasting forms of worship from an early age.
After a fairly brief flirtation with an independent evangelical church at university, I decided that I was most at home in a liturgical church, and in my 20s, I decided to be confirmed as an Anglican in Solihull, where we were then living.
After a move to our current house in 1991, we began worshipping at our local parish church, Christ Church in Crookham, and have been there ever since! I discerned a call to ministry shortly after moving, and in 1994 attended an Advisory Board for Ministry conference – the forerunner to Bishop’s Advisory Panel (BAP) – as part of that process. I was given a ‘not yet’ verdict and advised to consider training to become a Licensed Lay Minister (LLM), which was known as Readers’ ministry in those days. This I did, and felt very settled in that ministry, which gave me the freedom to explore other options outside the church alongside a ministry within it. I started a second career teaching the flute, both privately and in a local school and sixth form college.
In 2018, as our church was coming out of a vacancy, several (very different) members of the congregation approached me and asked if I had considered ordination. I gave them a fairly swift response: it was the wrong time with a new vicar imminent, my husband was receiving treatment for a serious illness, and I felt I was, at 61, too old. But it did give me a kick to become more involved in my LLM ministry both locally and at Diocesan level, and I eventually was asked to become Warden of LLMs in 2023.
It was in that role that I attended a diocesan vocations event called Nudge to help promote LLM ministry. The Caleb stream had just been launched and I was startled to receive my own Nudge! I began training as a Caleb last year and have benefited hugely from this impressive course. I attended a BAP in June, 30+ years after the previous one, and was delighted to be recommended.
I am very much looking forward to exploring this new ordained ministry in the same place I have been ministering, as a lay person, for the past 29 years, and endeavouring to follow God, wherever He leads me.
Psalms 126:7 carried me through my BAP, as it reminded me that my first exploration of ordained ministry, although it ended in tears, sowed a seed that has grown throughout my life.
Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed,
will come back with shouts of joy,
bearing their sheaves with them.- Psalm 126:7