WELCOME TO FR MOHAN UDDIN

Our new priest, Fr Mohan, sends his greeting and writes:

You must be wondering just what you've let yourselves in for!  I perfectly understand, - so let me say a few words about myself as a way of saying "hello" at this very early stage.

My name is Mohan Uddin, which is a distinctly foreign-sounding name, n'est-ce pas?  This is because my parents came from two different countries (my mother from Belgium and my father from the Indian sub-continent but they met here in England and started a life together.  i and my sister were born in London, and as children we lived in West Kensington until we reached university-age.

In my gap-year I came to the Christian faith by a conversion experience and so switched from a science route at A-Level to a theology route at university and beyond.  I've had the privilege of much formal biblical and theological study, which has been a great resource for life and ministry, but I have also lived the professional life of a teacher-lecturer for may years before ordination, including working abroad as an English Language teacher in Venezuela and Sapin, and here in the UK as a New Testament university lecturer in Southampton and Winchester.

The call of God upon my life led to ordination training in Cambridge and to ordination as a deacon in 2003 and as a priest in 2004.  My title-post was served in Hornchurch, Essex, and the following years I was assistant priest in Upminster, Essex and (most recently) in Southampton.  Although I have had wide experience of churches of different stripe over my many years as a Christian, it is in the past few years that my spirituality has been moving increasingly in a Catholic direction.  The combination of "evangelical" background, years of formal academic theological study and current Anglo-Catholic practice in ministry, made me think that St John the Evangelist, Newbury would be a wonderful setting for ministry in the Anglo-Catholic tradition and for raising the profile of the Christian faith in this particular area at this particular time.

I am delighted to know that St John's felt the same and that I would be, under God, the right person for this church at this present moment in its history.  I look forward immensely to joining you in the summer and starting a new chapter of faithful witness and Christian living in this parish.

May God bless you richly in the coming weeks and months, and please pray for me as I make the move to Newbury and start a new life with your church in the summer.  Thank you.

With my love and prayers,

Fr Mohan Uddin