Cardiff’s newest vicar on the Church and being transgender

Sarah Jones knew from childhood she was different and hopes people hearing her story will understand that the Church is diverse. Abbie Wightwick reports...

THE new vicar of Cardiff’s city centre parish St John the Baptist has ambitious plans to make it more open to the whole community.

After six weeks in Cardiff the city’s newest vicar says she loves her inner-city parish but there is lots of work to do with issues such as homelessness and drug addiction literally staring her in the face on the doorstep.

“I love St John’s. Cardiff has a fabulous feel. The city centre is full of the reality of modern life. We have people for whom society works and we have people sleeping outside our gates. I’d like to think that St John’s is well placed to reach out to both.

“The issues are in front of our gates. I don’t have ready-made answers and the problems are complex. The thing I need to do first is to settle and listen to the people who need our help the most.

“I don’t believe in bashing people with the Bible or telling them what they should believe but I do think that giving people an opportunity to consider and encounter God could make a positive difference to people’s lives”.

Sarah Jones came to Cardiff after 14 years in parish groupings in Ross-on-Wye.

“When I saw the details of the post at St John’s, I really felt that it might be the right post for me.

“My previous job was in a market town and this is the city centre of the capital of Wales but I really felt attracted to the parish. The people at St John’s gave me a fabulous welcome and I feel very lucky to be part of this church community.”

She had an unusual route into ministry. Leaving school at 16 after her parents’ marriage broke up, she had to change her original plans. She said: “I wanted to go to university but that disappeared overnight. I got a job in a music shop and I realised that I really enjoyed interacting with people.”

Over the years she had a variety of jobs in sales and training in the music business and in industry.

However, this is not the most unusual part of her background. Sarah was brought up as a boy and is the first Anglican priest to have undergone a gender change before being ordained into the Church.

“I looked like a boy and there was no reason to doubt it when I was born. However, I knew from the age of six or seven that I was more one of the girls than one of the boys.

“I was slightly different. I did fit in and I wasn’t bullied but by secondary school I knew deep down inside that I should have been one of the girls. However, I thought that I just had this feminine side to me but that I could carry on with a normal life.”

She married aged 20 but the marriage ended a few years later when Sarah found it increasingly hard to carry on in a male role. The split was amicable and the two remain friends.

“Gradually the pressure began to build. I felt in the wrong body but I thought I could handle it. Then I woke up one morning and almost couldn’t function. I knew however embarrassing and difficult it would be I had to go to the doctor. I was 25 or 26 at the time. I wrote a letter to my mother. She was very good and said she would support me in whatever I did.

“I had counselling, but the feelings kept growing. I believed in God from a very early age and I didn’t want to do anything which I thought might be sinful or wrong so I carefully explored the issues.

“I wanted to take things slowly. It took me nine years to make the change whereas some people do it in one or two years. I wanted to be really sure that this was right for me.”

In 1991 she changed her name legally to Sarah and started a psychology degree as a mature student at St Hugh’s College, Oxford. Around the same time Sarah “fell in love” with the Anglican church and was received into the Church of England in her college chapel.

But she had felt a calling to God as far back as childhood.

“I felt I had a vocation from the age of eight or nine. After I had made my gender change I remember saying to God “I’ve blown it now” because I thought there was no possibility of the Church accepting me for ordination.”

After several more years working in industry “wearing beautiful suits and driving a company car” Sarah knew she needed to follow her calling. In 2000 she applied to train for ordination in the Church of England.

The first interview went well.