What led you to becoming the Chaplain of Mill Hill School?

Throughout my career, I have always worked with children and young people both in schools and churches. Before completing my training for ordination, I was a youth community worker and worked at various small charities in social housing estates and green spaces across Barnet. My bachelor’s degree is in Youth and Community Work and Applied Theology which I studied at Ridley Hall, Cambridge. Eventually, I began the path to ordination, completing my training at Saint Mellitus College, Gloucester Road and have been a curate at St Pauls’ Church across the road from Mill Hill for the last three years.

My wife and I both love the community in Mill Hill, and when we were considering options for where to go at the end of my curacy at St Pauls’, it never felt quite right to move away, despite the numerous job offers that came up outside of London. In the end, it was a series of coincidences and prayer, that resulted in my posting here.

I had quite a few meetings and interviews, some resulted in exciting conversations but they didn’t lead anywhere. My wife, Georgia, said we should remain open-handed, and I prayed that God would put something directly into my hands.

The next day, the former Bishop of Edmonton, Rob Wickham, a lovely man, called me, saying he was going to Walker House for a chat with the CEO, Anthony Spencer and Chair of Governors, Elliot Lipton. It was only a check-in for Rob, he was soon to retire and as he had a particular investment in schools as bishop, he wanted to meet with Antony and Elliot before retiring.

It came up in their conversation that the School was looking for a Chaplain and my name was mentioned as I had done the Belmont Carol Service at St Paul’s some time ago, as well as a Remembrance Day service. Following their conversation, Bishop Rob rang me, asking if I would be willing to have an exploratory chat with them, which I accepted happily. It all went from there, and eventually I was appointed. It was lovely that one of Rob’s last services as Bishop was my licensing here at Mill Hill at the end of the summer term. 

Mill Hill is a diverse school, how will that impact you as Chaplain?

Here at Mill Hill, we have an interfaith community, we are a group of all faiths and none. My Christian belief and practice is what I call ‘generous orthodoxy’. My aim is to foster and cultivate an environment where everyone can feel free to be themselves; people can’t find solace or spirituality from a place of oppression. In fact, they often try to find a way to escape from that, and I don’t want that to happen here. I want people to find solace here from their troubles, I want to be able to help them with burdens, not add to them.

College was an interesting place to study; it was a community was very diverse with regards to the different Christian denominations and worship traditions present. We learnt not to see someone different as an adversarial individual, rather it’s more about seeing everything as merely being a part of one, greater whole.

What were your impressions of Mill Hill before you joined?

Truthfully, I had no idea of what to expect upon my arrival here and no preconceptions of what the culture was like. Meeting the staff has been amaing - every member of the common room that I have met has been lovely, warm and friendly, as well as a lot of fun. There’s a real sense of community and collegiality among them, which is something I really value in a work environment.

What has truly struck me though, is that outside of the formalities, which are part of the school heritage and tradition, there is a deep sense of warmth and friendship. The young people here are bright and curious, and diverse which is something I really value.

Whether young people are on the housing estates dealing with drugs or crime, in less dangerous, more affluent neighborhoods, they need a place to feel safe, and someone to support them. Despite their different circumstances, children aren’t as different and apart from each other as we think. There’s commonality between them, a series of subcultures, they listen to the same music and watch the same shows. Throughout their youth, they encounter the same issues of identity, who they are, where they are going in life, where is the world going, things like climate change and politics continue to impact all of them. These kids need the ability to articulate their frustrations in a positive sense, rather than being ignored and falling into expressing their anger in destructive and negative forms. At the end of the day, they’re not so different, despite their differences materially.

What are your aspirations for your time at Mill Hill?

Naturally, the first few months of my time here will be spent getting a deeper sense of the place and these young people. I admire history and tradition, and look for ways to use traditions as a foundation for something new to come into fruition – rather than simply dismissing it entirely. I’m always thinking about how we can express this or that in a contemporary way. How can we engage pupils of all faiths and none? As I have said before, I am a Christian both in life and in practice but in no way am I here to beat people over the head with the Bible. I’m here to be open handed, not to tell anyone what to think or believe. If the pupils would like to learn more about my faith, they can.

I’m here to help shape them as humans and to help them to be who they are becoming, in the healthiest way possible; that’s my charge. My goal for the pupils is that they have space in their minds and their lives to consider and talk about difficult issues with one another. I want to add as much joy as possible to their lives, to allow them to have peace from constant stress of academia and social media. The pupils need a way and a space to be able to appropriately respond to those things, and young people nowadays are being tasked to do things that they were never taught to do. They need guidance and support to cope with it all. We need to love our neighbours as ourselves, to enable them to be liberated and free. In my faith, we are called upon to love everyone above all else, to bless them even more, not to curse them. My job is to find the commonality between faiths, ethnicities, ages, genders and help us to lift each other up.