For Ingrid Barnsley, growing up in Woking, Surrey, faith was not part of her life. It was something distant, part of other people’s worlds, not her own.
At that point in her life, Ingrid says, “I think I would probably have ticked the Christian box on a form. But I had no idea who Jesus was, or why any of it mattered.”
What did shape her early life was sport. At school, and later at university in Nottingham, where she studied German and politics, Ingrid enjoyed rowing, football and rugby. She says, “The connection with others on a team and through sport has always been something that has brought me joy.”
After university, Ingrid took a year out to travel. She taught English in Thailand, volunteered with young entrepreneurs in Kenya, walked the steppes of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, and travelled around Mexico and South East Asia. “It opened my eyes to this amazing world.” Later, when she became a teacher, Ingrid travelled as much as she could during the school holidays. But looking back, she says she can see that even then there was a deeper longing for something. “Adventure was always the thing, but I think I was trying to find something big enough to give my life shape.”
It was after Ingrid became a history teacher in a Catholic school in London that things began to change. “I knew absolutely nothing about faith. And suddenly I was working somewhere where everything was built around Jesus.”
Everything felt unfamiliar at first. Yet, Ingrid says she had a sense that people were holding on to something profound. “Teaching at secondary school was such a gift, if a very exhausting one! But being part of this school was a key part of me becoming a Christian.”
After being at the school for three or four years, she started to question things. “I really started to ask who this Jesus actually was that we keep praying to and began to explore the practices of the faith and the Church. I found it frustrating that even though people kindly and patiently tried to answer my many, many questions, I still felt like it didn't make sense"
But the questions did not go away. If anything, they grew sharper, pressing in on her more insistently. “I think I was becoming more atheist as time went on, because nobody could explain it to me properly.”
Finally, a colleague pointed Ingrid in the direction of the Alpha course. “After about a year of persuasion, I eventually did the course. I had the most wonderful group, and on the Holy Spirit Day I was prayed for. After an extremely powerful encounter with God, I gave in to Jesus and said yes to actually following him. I knew from that day that life would be very different, and I very quickly became involved in church life.”
Leaving church that evening, she stopped walking. “I think for the first time I opened my heart to the possibility that Jesus really is who he says he is. I remember thinking, ‘Oh no. This changes everything.’ I was afraid to believe, because I thought, if this is true, then my life cannot stay the same.”
Back in school on Monday morning, Ingrid ’s colleagues noticed something had changed. They commented that she was ‘glowing’ and asked, ‘What happened to you?’
Her answer was simple. “I think something happened with God.”
What followed was a whirlwind. She quickly became involved in church life: leading groups, sharing her testimony and helping with services. Ingrid joined the school chaplaincy team and, during the pandemic, through the church’s Love Your Neighbour campaign, she delivered food parcels and supported vulnerable people across London.“That was when I realised the church wasn’t just talking about love, it was trying to live it.” At the same time, Ingrid moved into a rented house in Putney with a woman preparing for ordination. Each evening, conversations around the dinner table turned towards calling, vocation and priesthood. As she listened to someone else wrestling with questions of ordination, she began to recognise similar questions quietly taking root in her own life. Slowly, ministry stopped feeling like something other people did. “I never sat down and decided, ‘I’m going to become a priest.’ It was more like God kept opening doors faster than I could close them.”
“The words ‘belonging’, ‘community’ and ‘pilgrimage’ are the words driving my ministry. Experiences like walking the Camino de Santiago many times, going to Taizé and spending time with Christian communities like Iona have opened my eyes and heart to the richness of a life lived simply, prioritising deep connections with people. I feel that church is a place where people can and should feel they can come and really belong, and feel the love of God. I really hope that my vocation to ordained ministry will allow me to help people to feel this sense of love and belonging.”
Ingrid will serve her curacy at St Luke's Church, Bath.