The vicar who spends his spare time saving lives at sea as an RNLI volunteer
A VICAR might not be the first person you expect to be running from prayers to swap his robe for a dry suit and hop aboard a lifeboat, ready to go out and save lives.
But Mark Broadway, who is a vicar at three churches in Bridgend county, does exactly that.
Mark, who is originally from Burnham-on-Sea, moved to Wales with hopes of becoming a solicitor but after a calling from God, retrained as a vicar and is now also an RNLI volunteer at the Porthcawl lifeboat station.
He said: “It feels like a different world now. I was working in property law in Cardiff when I felt a call to ministry. Sometimes in life, you just know that God is calling you to do something different.”
Mark had not grown up religious and went to church for the first time aged 16. He said: “I have never really looked back. I didn’t see myself being a vicar, I don’t think anybody does. I thought I was going to have a different nice job but it wasn’t to be.
“Sometimes you get the sense that God is calling to you to do something. I don’t think that is just for people who are going to be vicars, I really do think that God is calling to every person, whatever it is that they do that they would do it in a good way.”
Mark trained at St Michael’s in Llandaff, Cardiff, and during the pandemic volunteered as a chaplain visiting the Covid wards.
He said: “It was scary at first, you think I’ve got the precautions in place, the PPE, I’ve got the training in place and I think that what I am doing is valuable and worth doing.
“There is nothing that is without risk, that was the decision that I made. Sometimes important things are worth taking more risks over, it is less of a risk to me than the doctors and nurses who are in it and working so hard and tirelessly. This is a small part that I can play to be of some help.”
In August 2020, Mark was appointed to three churches – St John’s in Newton, All Saints in Porthcawl, and St David’s in Nottage.
As the pandemic was still in full force, Mark was unable to move to live in Porthcawl until December 2020 and by October 2021, he had joined the RNLI.
Speaking about why he decided to volunteer, Mark said: “I grew up by the coast and there is an RNLI station there so I was aware of the work of the RNLI but it was the chap who ran the gym that I go to: he said to me if you are looking for something to do, why not give it a try?
“What I really wanted was something physical, something outdoors, something that would involve engagement with working-age people.”
He added: “I’ve got no nautical background at all. I joked to the lifeboat operations manager ‘I have been on a ferry’ was about the closest I had come.
“Growing up in Burnham-on-Sea, there was an RNLI station there, so I knew of their work, and coming to Porthcawl I knew that the station was really central to so much in the community.
“I thought this is a really good opportunity for me to do something for myself that I am going to enjoy and get something from but that also ties together my desire to be in the community, be known in the community so that I can have those opportunities that I might not have had to share a little bit of the gospel with people.”
Mark was also looking for a strong sense of camaraderie, having come from a big family.
He said: “I’m the youngest in a family of six, I’ve got a lot of older brothers and an older sister and so I grew up with a lot of banter in the house, and coming into the clergy people rarely give you banter.
“People are usually very polite and so what is really lovely about being on the lifeboat crew is the good-natured camaraderie. They know what I do for a living and they are very respectful of it but there is good-natured leg pulling as well. The classic jokes of walking on water come out every now and again.”
Being part of the lifeboat crew allows Mark to be himself, as someone who is more than just a vicar.
He said: “I am there as a volunteer, as a member of the crew and that means I’m not there as a vicar, I’m there as me.
“That is really liberating and of course people, whether they are on the crew or not, might still want to talk to me about matters of faith but they do so peer to peer, not as someone who is going to speak to a vicar and I find that really lovely because it has been a long time since I’ve had people talk to me as not a vicar, which is really great.”
This has included proving perceptions wrong and becoming close friends with the lifeboat crew.
He said: “I know from one of the crew, he actually was one of my groomsmen at my wedding so we’ve become really good friends, he has confided in me that when he first heard the vicar was joining the crew, he thought ‘oh no, this going to be dreadful, he is going to be cross at us and tell us what to do’.
“I think the fact that we became such good friends is testament to actually clergy are people too. I think it does something to dispel some of the images of what we think clergy are like and who we think clergy are.”
Mark also believes that being part of the RNLI has helped him in his vocation. He said: “I certainly think being on the lifeboat has made me a better vicar.
“Not only because it gives me better stories to tell in my sermons but also it gives you a perspective on the things that matter.
“So often in life, we can become quite narrow focused on what we are doing, especially people who love their job, can become really narrow focused on the thing that is immediately in front of them. But knowing that no matter what I am doing, the pager can go off at any moment because somebody’s life is in peril helps you remember what is important.”
The 36-year-old, who has also written a book during his time in Porthcawl called Journeying with God in the Wilderness, had his own wedding interrupted when several of the congregation had to answer a lifeboat call.
He said: “The person who was officiating at the wedding was a very close friend of mine and Jess and he joked at the beginning of the service ‘everybody has to turn their phones off unless you are on the lifeboat crew you are expecting the pager’ and everybody chuckled.
“Little did we know, 20 minutes later the pagers actually did go off. It was absolutely mad really.
“That meant the guests left. They are used to it, they are used to doing it. The pager can and does go off whenever it wants to.
“Last Valentine’s Day we had a shout, we’ve had a couple over the Christmas and festive period.
“We laugh it off, this is what we do it for, this is what we train for. It is a nice memory for the day.
“What is really nice is the shout was successful, the casualties were recovered unharmed and everyone got back in time for dinner! It was great, absolutely wonderful.”
Mark is now urging people to get involved with the RNLI.
He said: “No matter who you are, get in touch, there are a huge number of ways to be involved.
“Whether on the crew like I am or shore crew, or tractor drivers, or fundraisers, there are a huge number of ways to be involved.
“We are all one crew and we support each other, we encourage each other so I’d encourage anyone to get in touch with their local station and ask how they can be involved.”