Saint John’s Church in Shildon and Saint Mark’s in Eldon welcomed their new minister Reverend Mark Hudghton last weekend.
Working alongside Reverend David, Mark will be in Shildon for the next three to four years.
Uniquely Mark’s wife Emily, was ordained alongside Mark at Durham Cathedral just two weeks ago and has begun her ministry in Stockton.
Both said they wanted to go into ministry before they met at York University and their shared calling helped bring them together.
“We did not see each other and think, ‘You are going to be a vicar so I definitely want to marry you,’” Emily laughed. “But I think it means we were coming from the same place in terms of the way we wanted to live our lives.”
With two clergy under one roof, they admit there is a danger they turn inwards to church issues and politics. But they also insist there is a benefit in that they both get what the other is going through. “We both understand the stresses and strains and the joys,” says Mark.
Still firmly in their 20s, they were among a flood of young people taking Holy Orders this summer.
The Church of England has reported a 14 per cent rise in people training for ordination this year and a 17 per cent increase in the number of women.
Among the 543 beginning theological college, one in four are under 32, signalling a much-needed shift if the CofE is to replace its ageing clergy.
Both said their training had given ‘so many reasons to be excited and hopeful for the future’. Mark adds; “Jesus is Lord and Jesus wants people to come to know him through the Church in this country. I can’t see the future of the church in England and the Church of England being anything other than positive.”
Aware they are a tiny part of a much bigger change that needs to happen, Mark says he feels like the boy in the gospel story of feeding the 5,000, who brought his small lunch to Jesus only for it to be multiplied. “We don’t bring anything, in and of ourselves, other than what God has given us to give away,” he says, with Emily adding: “We can love people. That is our part to play.”
Shildon & District's local community newspaper.
