Introducing Your Curate

Rev. Nigel Dawkins Well, I've arrived, and it's probably time I introduced myself properly. And where better to start than at the very beginning? As the song says, a very good place to start. The good news is that, although I feel a bit of a stranger in this fair county, I was actually born in Surrey. The first five years of my life were spent in Sunbury on Thames, where my father was a lay reader at the Anglican church.

We later moved to Saudi Arabia and - you might have thought July was hot - I spent much of my childhood in a permanent heat-wave. Seven years in the Middle East left me fascinated with the region, so after boarding at the oldest school in the country - St Peter's, York - I went on to study Arabic at Oxford. Even at this stage, a vocation to ministry was bubbling under the surface, and after university I spent a year in Kenya, as the Chaplain's Assistant with the Missions to Seafarers in Mombasa.

I eventually decided, like Dick Whittington, to head for London's streets paved with gold. I took a master's degree in computing from UCL, and then worked for six years as a software consultant, including a stint at Sainsbury's head office. During this time I settled in Kennington and became a regular worshipper at St Mary, Newington - the parish from which Fr Michael came to Caterham. His successor had been a teacher at Caterham School, so there are strong links between the two parishes! While part of the congregation there I felt a clearer calling to ordained ministry and, having been selected for ordination training, packed my bags once again...

Cambridge was a lovely place to spend three years. The university is very similar to Oxford, but the theological college was quite different from anything I'd experienced before. At Westcott House we lived as a community: eating together, studying together and worshipping together. The daily discipline of meeting for Morning and Evening Prayer is something I'm glad to be continuing here at St Mary's.

I have unpacked my belongings in my freshly-painted house in Spencer Road, and have tucked the suitcases away in the loft. I'm very much looking forward to getting to know you all, and am delighted to be back in the county of my birth.

With Best Wishes, Father Nigel