Faith has threaded through Elizabeth Alden’s life for as long as she can remember. She grew up in Kent, where Sundays meant services, choir practice and a rhythm of worship that became part of who she was long before she says she understood it fully. “I was taken to church from when I was a baby. It was simply the air I breathed growing up.”
From a young age Elizabeth was singing in the choir, it was something she carried on doing until she left to go to university. “I loved singing in the church choir several times a week, and was confirmed – but without knowing I could know God personally and be assured of salvation.”
Elizabeth says her calling has been quiet and steady, shaped by an awareness that God was present within all her decisions both large and small. After her four sons had all started school she sad down and asked God what he was calling her to do. That question changed the direction of her life.
Soon after she found a job advertised for a Christian Leader at Kings of Wessex School, Cheddar. It became a ministry she loved deeply; walking alongside young people, helping them ask questions about faith, leadership and purpose. “The wonderful thing was being a lay person. The clergy could do the things I couldn’t do, and together it worked beautifully.”
Later she became involved in pioneering ministry and worked with young adults, creating new spaces for people to be able to encounter God and community. But somewhere within that work, another prompting began to emerge. “There were moments where I felt God nudging me toward priestly ministry specifically, and honestly, at my age, I thought I would ve best to follow where they would lead. I didn’t particularly want to end up in the belly of a whale.”
Even then, Elizabeth wasn’t sure this is what God had planned for her, expecting the discernment process would eventually tell her no, but feeling she needed to try. “All the way through, I expected someone to say, ‘No, this isn’t for you.’ And I thought that would be absolutely fine, because at least I’d followed where I thought God was leading.” Instead, every door continued to open.
Now, after training at Trinity College, Elizabeth says, “I love the idea of being a deacon. Looking out for people on the margins, bringing them to the church and bringing the church to them.”
Her curacy will take place within a benefice alive with experimentation and community engagement — breakfast church, toddler group, new forms of worship and outreach. What excites her is not simply the chance to lead, but to encourage others in their own callings. “I love seeing the different ways people live out their faith. In their work, their families, their neighbourhoods. I think part of ministry is helping people recognise what God is already doing through them.”
Elizabeth will serve her curacy in Beckington with Standerwick with Berkley with Rodden with Lullington with Orchardleigh and Saint Katherine’s, Woodlands.