Mrs Sarah Gull was ordained by the Bishop of Dunwich in St Edmundsbury Cathedral.
Photo: Sarah with Michael Harrison, Bishop of Dunwich
Sarah Gull is a Consultant Gynaecologist and formerly Joint Course Supervisor for the Graduate Medical Course at West Suffolk Hospital. She is among 13 people who were ordained as Deacons at St Edmundsbury Cathedral in Bury St Edmunds on 2nd of July.
Bury St Edmunds, Newmarket, Haverhill, Ipswich, Felixstowe, Wickham Market and Hartismere are among the communities represented by the newly-appointed Church of England clergy.
“They say that miracles don’t happen, but those who remember me may be surprised to learn that I was ordained as deacon at the cathedral in Bury St Edmunds this July. Having spent nearly forty years working in the NHS, and mainly ignoring all things religious, this is somewhat of a turnaround.
I will (briefly) explain my story: I was baptised as a baby by my grandfather, who was a minister in the Church of England, but brought up with the understanding that women could never be priests. The first woman priest was ordained in England in 1994, by which time I was already a consultant in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. I attended occasional services, but it wasn’t until 2007, on a visit to Syria, that I realised just how remote my own Christianity had become by comparing it with the Islamic culture around me there. I entered a church in Aleppo, and was struck by its calm dignity. From there I slowly developed a yearning which I could not define, but was too shy or too proud to just turn up at a church.
My husband and I enjoyed walking holidays, and we joined a pilgrimage in 2016 arranged by the cathedral in Bury St Edmunds to Santiago along the Camino Ingles. This “broke the ice” for me as I got to know several ministers in the group, and realised they were human! It gave me the courage to turn up at an 8am Holy Communion service in my parish church, St Mary’s, a beautiful medieval building whose roof is supported by a procession of angels. I found the Eucharist intensely moving, and the weekly service with a small group of people became the most important moment of my week, ordering and re-ordering the somewhat chaotic and stressful life I had accrued.
I retired from Medicine in 2018 and my fellowship as DOS for clinical medicine in 2019. I had started seeing a spiritual director (a system open to anyone) who helped me in scriptural reading and encouraged me to consider ordination at a time when I felt very unprepared- at this stage I hadn’t even begun to explore the idea of church as a community and still felt vulnerable in my own faith.
There is a system in Suffolk called the Auxiliary Ordination Pathway, which supports ordination for people coming from different backgrounds at all ages- in some ways this compares to the Graduate Course in Medicine, where students with different types of degree can contribute to medicine from their own perspectives. A group of eight of us met regularly with the bishops Martin Seeley and Mike Harrison for instruction.
I wrote essays throughout Lockdown. I struggled with the many different perspectives and the different language(s) of Faith and have had to learn to discard my need for personal control. The process has led me to be more accepting of other views – an endless exploration rather than explanation. My experience as a Fellow at Lucy Cavendish was invaluable in making this possible.
The ceremony itself was amazing- I was delighted that Edith Esch, another Emeritus Fellow, came along. Since then I have been gradually getting used to wearing a dog-collar. It is quite comfortable, so I don’t notice it, only the reactions of everyone else. It is early days to see where it will lead me. As a deacon I still feel very ill-prepared, but in theory I can now conduct baptisms and funerals: like medicine this seems to involve watching one and then doing it. The general expectation is towards priesthood in a year, but in the meantime I follow my instructions[1]
If anyone wants a chat then do get in touch!”
Sarah Gull, Emeritus Fellow. Fellow Lucy Cavendish 2000-2019 Clinical Medicine