Having come to faith at a holiday club as a nine-year-old, Claire Wren was inspired by the women she saw being ordained in the 1990s to take the next step in her ministry.
Christianity has always been central to Claire’s life, and so following her university studies, she went on to complete a year-long internship with a church. She then trained to be a teacher and followed that career for three years before God called her back into children and youth ministry. It was during an interview for a children’s ministry role in 2018 that Claire first voiced her call to be ordained.
She recalls: “Once I’d said it out loud it snowballed and the next thing I knew I was talking to a vocations advisor…”
Claire added: “There are three things I’ve been certain of in my life – that I would go for the priesthood, that I would have six children, and that I would marry my husband when I met him.”
Claire followed a two-year pioneer pathway, working with a congregation in a new housing estate alongside her studies at Church Mission Society and on our Part-Time Pathway.
Claire said: “My faith to me means ultimate hope, ultimate peace; friendship with others and friendship with God.” Claire will serve her curacy at Dorchester Abbey. As the mother of six children, aged four to 19, she doesn’t have a lot of spare time but she does enjoy singing and playing saxophone in a rock covers band, The Greenway Project.