When Andy Everett is ordained deacon this summer, it will mark the culmination of a journey that began more than 35 years ago as a student teacher. Kathryn, the woman he later married, invited him to church. Andy came to faith, was baptised, and began a journey that would be lived out in practical service to others.
Andy has had a 31-year career in primary education, including 23 years as a headteacher in church schools. At the time of his baptism he felt a strong calling towards the field of education and continued to feel God at work throughout his life.
In 2022 God called him and his wife Kathryn to a particular church, and from there to ordination. Andy and Kathryn moved to Mickleton to be closer to their children and grandchildren. After initially attending a local Baptist church, both Andy and Kathryn sensed on the journey home that something was not right.
“On the journey home, we were both quiet in the car and then looked at each other and said, ‘that’s not where we’re supposed to be'”, Andy said. “It felt like God was saying ‘that’s not the right place, that’s not why you were brought down to this area’.”
When they first visited St Lawrence’s Church, the sense was very different. “It felt like I was coming home. Even though I’d spent only a brief time in the Anglican Church back in the late eighties, it really felt like coming home.” Andy said. “We just felt so welcome.”
Shortly afterwards, a lay leader at St Lawrence’s independently suggested that Andy might be called to ordained ministry. “The question was familiar, and the call first raised nearly a decade earlier now seemed to be re-emerging at the right time,” Andy said.
Andy began training at Ripon College Cuddesdon in 2023. He first completed an introduction to Christian ministry course before moving into more formal training. “It’s been such an enriching experience. I’ve enjoyed the depth of teaching, and the wisdom of the tutors, who are amazingly perceptive of how you’re feeling and what you’re in need of next,” Andy said.
He will serve his curacy in the Vale and Cotswold Edge, an area whose rural communities feel very familiar after many years living and working in North Shropshire.
“Working as a headteacher, I saw my role as helping other people do the best they possibly could,” he said. “I think ministry is similar. It’s about serving and encouraging people so that they can become all that God is calling them to be.
“I feel that God is already at work in these communities. I’m just being asked to join in.”
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