Kayleigh Magrath is one of the new deacons being ordained at Guildford Cathedral on Sunday 2nd July and shares her story of being called to church ministry.
"At the age of five I found a book of Reader’s Digest children’s Christmas carols (the most religious book I could find in our house) and announced to my parents that I was going to church. God had called me to worship him, and I answered the call. When I got older, however, and felt that I might be called to go into ministry, I resisted. My family had ambitions for me, and I had ambitions for myself. None of these ambitions involved working on a Sunday.
When I was at university I developed an illness which required me to spend long periods of time in hospital receiving treatment and multiple surgeries over the course of several years. Prior to this illness, I had been so busy following the call of my ambitious pride that I had managed to block out the voice of God almost completely. Now, stuck in a hospital bed, I had little choice but to listen and to respond.
I started talking with my fellow patients about faith; then I was praying with them; then I was reading and discussing the Bible with them. Through this extended period of bodily weakness, God revealed to me where my strengths lay, and that my true calling was to serve him, and to serve others through him. Though I am very grateful that I am now physically recovered, I am also grateful to have had the time and space for discernment and reliance on God which led me to where I am today."
Find out more about the ordination services taking place this year.