We spoke to Rory Wilson, Church Buildings Support Officer for the Diocese of Gloucester about his journey to faith.
“It’s hard to grasp how different life was before I came to know God. I was utterly reborn as a different person.”
“I was born out in the sticks in New Zealand and had a shock when at age 9 my family moved to Wales. I had no idea what the outside world was like until moving to Britain when my father accepted a job as an agricultural scientist. School life was hard, with bullying not just from the children, but also the teachers, who teased me for my ‘funny’ accent, ‘funny’ name and so forth.”
After a brief stint in branch banking in West Wales, Rory joined the Navy and spent 5 years at sea as an electronic systems engineer. On board ship, Rory met an artificer (engineering technician) called Żukowski, a strong man with a formidable build, who never swore or drank and radiated calm and peace. Rory was appreciative of his attitude and intrigued when he discovered that this friend would go to the Aggie Weston’s Sailors’ Rest missions to seafarers whenever he was ashore. This network provided a safe environment where sailors could avoid trouble and receive spiritual guidance.
When he left the Navy, Rory trained as an architect. Following five years with an architectural practice in the Midlands, Rory formed his own practice with a friend, building a small business, employing six or seven staff. Gradually the practice started picking up work through local churches and he enjoyed that environment but never considered faith was for him.
In 2004, just after his mother had died, Rory was sitting in her empty home and he noticed a Bible. On a whim, he opened it, started turning the pages and found that all the words that previously felt irrelevant to him suddenly made sense. Relating the story, tears appeared in Rory’s eyes as he remembered the sudden peace and understanding that came over him.
“It was a moment of euphoria, when everything changed. I didn’t know what to do but I had to speak to someone about it. I picked up the phone and called my mother’s neighbour, Richard who I knew was a Christian.”
Richard invited Rory along to church where he met the priest, Andy, who Rory described as a ‘normal bloke without a holier than thou attitude or a lettuce leaf handshake’. Here, Rory’s faith grew and he learned to look for one thing to apply to himself each time he went to church.
“It’s hard to grasp how different life was before I came to know God. I was reborn as a different person. God is timeless, he was and is and will be and you can have the longest conversation in the world with him in a fraction of a second.”
Rory keeps a small cross in his pocket, made of New Zealand jade as a reminder that God is always with him. “It helps me to reframe my thinking and to prompt me to take moments of quiet in the day for prayer.”
“Now most of my friends are Christians. I’m not a good Christian myself – I don’t look at the Bible and I don’t always manage to get to church, but I love a good sermon, and I hope I’ve become more accepting of people.
“It took a long time to calm down from the euphoric moment when my eyes were opened to the Lord, but slowly you become it and it becomes you.”
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