A new curate for Kirkby

Jayne VanDenBerg-Owens

 

After being ordained as a deacon last week, Jayne has taken up the post of curate in the Kirkby Parish. Jayne who is originally from Kirkby has moved into St. Mark’s Vicarage at Brampton Close with her husband Andy and two of her three children – Joseph and Chris. Prior to her training for ordination, Jayne has spent the majority of her working life running her own business. During the last three years whilst studying, she has focused on increasing her listening and pastoral skills, by working part-time as a Crisis Carer.

From an early age, Jayne has always been conscious of having a personal faith in God and has always been involved in some form of active lay ministry in the churches where she has worshipped. Around ten years ago after a death in the family, Jayne found her faith being challenged. This resulted in her embarking on a journey of discovery, in which she sought to delve deeper into the faith she had been taught as a child. Initially this led to studying theology through a correspondence course with St. John’s College in Nottingham.

Whilst studying at St. John’s College, Jayne became a lay leader in St. John’s Church, Burscough. She became involved in the development of house-groups, writing small group studies and was a pastor to a cluster of house-group leaders. Before being selected for ordination, Jayne spent three years developing and running a discipleship programme for mature Christians who, like Jayne wanted to deepen their understand of the Christian faith. Jayne is passionate about sharing the Gospel with people both inside and outside the church and considers outreach and evangelism to be an important part of her ministry.

Jayne sees her new role in the Kirkby team ministry as a real homecoming. Jayne says, “St. Martins Church is on the next road from where I grew up as a child, and I can see my first marital home from the vicarage! Bishop James Jones commented earlier this year; that taking up a post in Kirkby would in many ways be like going back to my roots – and this is exactly what it feels like! Being a ‘Kirkby Lass’ and coming from a working class background, I am not what many people would consider to be a ‘typical’ Deacon. Nevertheless, Kirkby was the place where God planted the seeds in my heart for my future ministry, and I pray that by his grace he will allow those seeds to bear fruit in my hometown. I look forward to meeting friends from the past and meeting new people as I serve the people of Kirkby”.