Sarah Roberts-Malpass has been licensed as the Anglo-Catholic Mission Priest for Kingswinford and Wall Heath, one of our renewal parishes. Her role is funded by the national church and will be very outward focussed, taking the church into the local community.
Sarah said: “In this role I want to take the riches of the Anglo-Catholic tradition out of the church buildings and be with and bless the communities I'm set in. I hope to be visible and accessible – out in the businesses, the care homes, on the streets and in the schools, meeting people where they are. There is historic precendent with the idea of mission priests, working at the fringes and reaching those who haven’t previously had any contact with the Church.”
Sarah has recently completed her curacy at St Thomas’ Church in Stourbridge. She had seen the role of Anglo-Catholic Mission Priest advertised and while on a retreat at Walsingham praying about her next steps, she had a real sense that she needed to explore it further.
“God also seemed to be speakng through different people who kept asking me if I’d seen the post!” said Sarah. “I love talking to people so it really is a dream job and I’m looking forward to getting started and getting to know people. To begin with, it’ll be a time of listening and understanding what’s possible as I get established in both the churches and the community. I’ll then be looking to set up new sacremental communities, although I’m not yet sure what they might look like. It’s very exciting to know that I can be creative with this role.”
Sarah was nurtured in faith in the Ango-Catholic tradition, moving away in her teenage years before coming back to church through her love of music. She trained as a French horn player and was for many years a freelance musician and teacher. She is also a reluctant organist and was the organist for 17 years at the church where her faith developed before she began training for ordination.
“Music has always been very important to me and it’s lovely to be able to use it in my ministry. In curacy I used to play for the children in one of our primary schools as they came into assemblies, and I hope that my music will be useful in working with the five schools in this new parish.”
Sarah already has a number of ideas to get started with her ministry in Kingswinford and Wall Heath. She and curate Chris Smith will be offering ‘ashes to go’ in the high street on Ash Wednesday and there is a pet service being planned for St Francis’ Day.
I’ll be working in parallel with other members of the ministry team and we’ll be coming together for the major feast days. We each have individual skill sets and it’s a bit like an orchestra – we will work together to bring harmonies and reach more people!
Outside of church Sarah enjoys walking, reading, cooking and board games – in particular playing Dungeons and Dragons with her two children aged 12 and 15. She is also currently enjoying roller skating!
