THE incoming Bishop of Aston, Canon Esther Prior, is praying “an unattainable prayer”: for ten per cent of individuals within the diocese of Birmingham to attend C of E churches.
Speaking shortly after her announcement as the subsequent Suffragan Bishop of Aston, on Thursday morning, Canon Prior, who’s currently Vicar of St John the Baptist, Egham, said that she was inspired by St Paul “for being someone that prays ‘unattainable prayers’, as I call them”.
Her prayer is for dramatic growth in attendance at Birmingham’s churches. “I’m praying for a tithe of town for the Church of England,” she said — a growth which might amount to a tenfold increase on current numbers.
Canon Prior’s particular areas of focus in her latest post are to be ministry and mission, and she or he regards the previous as integral to the latter.
“The primary thing that may get me up within the morning is clergy well-being,” she said. She also desires to encourage vocations. “If we don’t get that right, mission struggles: the 2 are intertwined.”
While she professes to “love strategy” and never to be afraid of management speak, Canon Prior is frank in regards to the task ahead, if Birmingham is to see the expansion in worshippers for which she is praying. “Only God can provide a rise, and, if we’re serious about people coming to prayer, coming to faith in Jesus Christ, it has to begin with prayer,” she said.
With this in mind, her first step can be to ascertain a gaggle of people who find themselves committed to praying for ten per cent. “From there, ideas will flow, but that must be the start line,” she said.
Born in Malawi, Canon Prior spent her adolescence in Zimbabwe. She left Africa for the primary time in 1999, when she moved to England to coach for ordination at Trinity College, Bristol.
“My entry to British society was actually quite welcoming,” she said. “I even have stories of racism to inform, obviously, but I even have stories to inform where I’ve been blown over by love and welcome and acceptance.”
The murder of George Floyd in 2020 led to a “moment of unlocking” for Canon Prior: “I realised that I had been caught up in what I started to call a conspiracy of silence. I didn’t talk in regards to the micro and macro aggressions that you simply get by being a black person.”
Initiatives resembling the recent gathering for UK Minoritised Ethnic/Global Majority Heritage (UKME/GMH) clergy within the province of Canterbury (News, 9 September) allowed people to feel visible for the primary time, Canon Prior said, which was in a way really sad.
“Stories like that needs to be a thing of the past,” she said. But she also acknowledged that there was a a bent sometimes to “highlight the things that usually are not going right, relatively than highlighting the things which might be actually good”.
In Birmingham, it was necessary to ask how churches could “seem like the communities that they serve”, she said, and never just in relation to ethnicity: “I need everyone to feel loved, to feel that there’s a place for them of their local Church of England church.”
On the divisions that exist within the Church over the Living in Love and Faith process, Canon Prior didn’t wish to be drawn. “I even have an actual commitment to loving the person in front of me, and, actually, stories of affection can change the narrative,” she said.
As a member of the General Synod, she has previously voted against the introduction of blessings for same-sex couples, and in favour of structural provision for many who oppose the changes.
Asked in regards to the current situation within the Church of England within the wake of the Makin report, which was described last week by the Bishop of Rochester, Dr Jonathan Gibbs, as an “existential crisis”, Canon Prior said: “This is a time of unique challenges for the Church. . . And yet, genuinely, I’m still crammed with hope, since the work of the gospel carries on in local churches, and that’s at all times exciting to see.”
After her ordination as priest in 2004, Canon Prior served her title at St John’s, Deptford, before becoming chaplain at Blackheath Bluecoat School, after which HM Prison Cookham Wood.
In 2011, she became Team Vicar of St John the Baptist, Cove, before moving to a church of the identical dedication in Egham. She was made an Honorary Canon at Guildford Cathedral this 12 months.
The Bishop of Birmingham, Dr Michael Volland, said on Thursday that Canon Prior was “an individual of full of life faith in Jesus Christ and involves us with a breadth and depth of ministerial experience”.
He said that he was “delighted” to announce her appointment, and that “her gifts can be a fantastic blessing to the people of Birmingham and the broader region”.
