The Revd Steven Young PhD student at the College and Curate in the Diocese of London.
What were you doing before you came to the College as an ordinand?
I was a pastoral assistant for the Old St Pancras Team, a group of Churches in Camden Town and Kings Cross. Before that I worked as a hotel receptionist, then as a footman at Buckingham Palace before becoming a student press officer for the Labour Party. After that, I then ended up on the street (fundraising) or 'chugging' for charity. Along the way I managed to pick up a degree in Media and Cultural Studies.
Why did you choose to come to the College of the Resurrection?
I first came to the Community of the Resurrection for a retreat whilst I was a pastoral assistant. At that time life in London was at its most frenetic, running a night shelter, helping in a refugee service, a drug and alcohol detox unit and putting on a club night. I was abundantly aware of the poverty of my own prayer life and the danger of getting locked into a cycle of perpetual action.
When I came to Mirfield I realised straight away that this was a place that was totally permeated with prayer. When I first experienced worship alongside the community there was no way I could pass on the opportunity of spending three years of training and formation in an environment so attentive to the will of God, so dependent on His grace, and so aware of the privilege of worshipping Him with all our hearts and minds.
Can you tell us something about your time here and how it helped you prepare for life as a curate?
Life at Mirfield begins and ends with prayer. Alongside the college's worship at the Eucharist and Morning Prayer each day the college joins the community for Evensong and there is the opportunity to end the day in prayer at Compline - lecturer permitting you can even make it to the midday office most days! There are also thousands of quiet places to be found for silent prayer and meditation in the monastery's beautiful grounds. I passionately believe that it is primarily through prayer that Christian formation happens and as such, for me, there can be no better preparation for life as a curate than training alongside a religious community.
Prayer at Mirfield was not always easy - in fact it felt occasionally infuriating and almost impossible, but living with that, dealing with that, and trying to stay faithful when the warm glow fades was kind of the point - because that's what happens in Ministry. Mirfield exposes you both to the glories of worship but gives you no place to hide from the responsibilities of prayer when you feel like you've had enough.
Why did you choose to come back here for further study after ordination?
When I arrived at Mirfield due to bad experiences on my first degree course I was so nervous of academic work that I tried to persuade the staff not to let me do a degree... but I left with a BA and an MA by research and now it is me persuading them to let me come back for more! This is testament to the absolutely fantastic academic support available at Mirfield provided not only by excellent teaching and tutoring but through certain key members of the academic support staff, who really do go the extra mile and more to help you get the best out of studying here if you are only prepared to meet them half way. The house and college libraries are also the most conducive place to study I have ever known, have an amazing, eclectic and in some subjects unrivalled collection of resources. They are also stocked by a wonderful Librarian possessed of near encyclopaedic knowledge of what's on the shelves and where to find it fast.
What course are you now doing, and what do you hope to study in the coming years? Why this topic?
I'm doing a PhD part time, researching supplementary and unofficial resources for daily prayer such as Manuals of devotions, Books of Hours etc. in the Church of England from 1850ish to 1860. Why? Because I want to encourage more people to discover the glories of daily prayer and to give it a go!
Last year I researched the contemporary use of the daily office in the Diocese of London and found out how little it was used or even known of, despite the evidence of how much God's grace and activity is continually made known when a church of all traditions and styles begin diligently and publicly praying together daily. In my first year of curacy I found out first hand how hard it is to get actually get a congregation in church at midweek services using the daily office, and despite my belief in the benefits of this I'm beginning to appreciate better some of the reasons why people don't attend. However, I'm discovering that many people do say their prayers privately using a variety of devotional resources for daily prayer and I want to find out more about the history of these texts and their relationship to the official liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer.
How are you finding combining study here with parish ministry in London?
Challenging. But, then so is everything worth doing. My bishop and training incumbent have been hugely supportive. I have been permitted one study day per week in addition to my rest day. So every fortnight I come to Mirfield from London on Sunday evening and stay ‘till Tuesday night and work from home whenever possible the rest of the time. It means I only get one day off every two weeks, but get a fortnightly trip to Mirfield thrown into the bargain, and I’m also a big fan of the East Coast Main Line – so it’s all good!