|
Mention
conversion to Nick Williams, vicar of St Peter's in Milton, and he's as
likely to think of ships as well as people. This reflects his two careers;
25 years in the Royal Navy as an engineering officer followed by 20 years
in the ministry.
During
his naval career, as well as shore duty he did three tours aboard ship,
one in a frigate, in the engine room, and two on the aircraft carrier HMS
Hermes working with helicopters.
Although
as a mechanical engineer his speciality was helicopters both on and off
ships, his last job was more to do with ships themselves. It included
preparing container ships for use as aircraft ferries during the
Falkland's war. One of these was the Atlantic Conveyor.
'I was in
charge of its conversion; an interesting experience. It was just five days
work.'
His own
conversion was far less speedy or dramatic. `I am one of those who can't
remember not going to church. How much I believed as a child I don't
know. My aunt and uncle were my guardians because my father
was building things in the Middle East. My uncle was church warden and
treasurer. So church was a significant part of my life.'
His path
to the vicarage has been a series of distinct steps. During his naval
training days he remembers being dragged from his hammock by a friend and
taken off to church after a very energetic week at sea in the Dartmouth
training squadron.
`I felt
like saying something very salty but we went along. It was very high
church; incense, bells, vestments, the lot. I was not used to this but for
my friend it was very important. And for me it was a significant step.'
Others
followed. He met and married a vicar's daughter, Helen. `My father-in-law
was a lovely man, an aviator who had survived the entire second world war.
God was obviously on his side because aviators did not survive.'
The next
major step came when they moved to Corsham. Here Nick met a naval
officer who was also a Church of England Reader. `I knew I didn't want to
be ordained but this Reader seemed to be what I wanted to be, in the world
but able to do something for God. So I did the course and was licenced as
a Reader.'
Almost
immediately he went back to sea and he reckons the sailors he was working
with could not get over it. Six days a week he was their engineering
officer and even on Sundays they could not get away because he was
preaching to them.' But more important than preaching was being able to
get alongside them on the flight deck where any regular chaplains not used
to working around aircraft could be a liability.
`I
remember one time at three am, miserably cold and waiting to do an engine
run to prove an aircraft serviceable. I had half a dozen sailors with me.
I always made it a rule not to talk about God until they did. And they
did start talking.'
Later
working at the MOD in London he was licensed to a parish in Middlesex. At
that time he finally acknowledged being called to the ministry, and
decided to put it to the test. He was 38 and with four children it wasn't
a step to take lightly. `I remember saying to Helen if they don't accept
me the first time I am not going back a second. I am either right or not
right. Some of my friends had gone forward for selection and been turned
down, people far more faithful and understanding than me.' Although he
was accepted, the path to ordination was not full-time theological
college, but three years of evening lectures and weekend residential
courses. He reckons it was the same course followed in the same time by
full-time students. `It was not a soft option.'
Ordination was followed by a curacy in Petersfield in the diocese of
Portsmouth. `Lots of my old naval friends were there so it was a good
transition.'
From
there it was to Droitwich as a team vicar and then to three small parishes
near Evesham before coming to Weston where he has been vicar at St Peter's
for the past nine years.
`This has
been a fascinating time. When I started, the one bit of Locking Castle
then built was in this parish so I got very involved in setting up the
ecumenical parish there. And through that I got involved with the local
council, a whole new dimension I knew nothing about until then.' He
speaks with particular enthusiasm of his involvement as vice-president and
president of Churches Together in Weston super Mare and District in the
organisation of several successful missions before and during the
millennium celebrations.
`I began
to make friends across denominational boundaries.' Asked if he has seen
any changes in recent years relating to Churches Together he simply says
that they have been huge. From an organisation which he now looks back
on as `being dead in the water', it is today a catalyst in bringing local
Christian leaders together in fellowship, service and mission. `Could
you imagine us all lunching together eight years ago as we do regularly
today? It would not have happened, nobody would have seen any reason
to be there.'
And what
should we be doing together for the future?. He contrasts the present
climate with attempts in the early 1980s at national level to create
organisational unity between denominations. Today people are
working together at grass roots. This he sees as being a more realistic
way forward, and there is much evidence of it happening.
Brian
Kellock. |
