Dylan’s journey to the Mission Area started in a cybercafé in Spain, and if that doesn’t pique your interest enough, he is a cold brew coffee lover who tells terrible lightbulb jokes, listens to Terry Pratchett audiobooks and a lot of Nina Simone as well as an eclectic range of music depending on his mood and circumstance.
Dylan is at his happiest sitting under a tree in his parents’ garden, in his favourite season of Autumn, looking out over the Dee Valley where he grew up, in Froncysyllte.
As a toddler, Dylan used to wander out into the garden, pick broccoli growing in the vegetable patch and merrily eat it raw, as it was very sweet straight off the plant. As soon as it was washed or cooked, he would not touch it. Much to his dismay, he was told he was no longer allowed to pick the broccoli, and Dylan took this literally. Not long after the broccoli-picking ban, his parents found him in the garden with his hands clasped behind his back, eating the broccoli straight off the plant, no picking done whatsoever! Dylan loves this tale and thinks it sums him up, ‘an adherent of the rules – but happy to work around them’!
When he was younger, Dylan was fortunate in getting to see the world in a way which was ‘beyond his means’. At the age of 15 he went on a school exchange to Japan, at 16 he went to Zimbabwe and Zambia with the mission charity Youth with a Mission, and at 18 he went to Lesotho with Dolen Cymru as part of an ecumenical youth visit. Despite being well-travelled, Dylan admits to not being very good at holidays, however, if he could go anywhere in the world on his next holiday, regardless of time and money, he would go back to South Africa to Cape Town and the West Coast where he visited for work and ‘fell a bit in love with this bit of the world’.
Not quite South Africa, but the Mission Area welcomes Dylan! In his role as a new Curate, Dylan is most excited about coming home to North Wales and being part of what God is doing in and around Ruthin. He is looking forward to joining with people in loving and serving God in everyday life, both in English and Welsh as he is bilingual.
Dylan admits that wanting to become a minister has been at the back of his mind for all his adult life, and has been an idea that he has, ‘flirted with and feared’ for two decades. He went to University in Liverpool where he studied a BA and an MA in theology. He has also lived in Yorkshire and London where he worked as a pastoral assistant in West Hampstead before getting a job at the Anglican Communion Office, supporting the work of Anglican churches throughout the world.
Dylan is joining us most recently from Cardiff where he has been training for four years through St. Padarn’s Institute. He is currently studying for a PhD and thinks that 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 is one of his favourite scriptures because it is the heart of his thesis, and we should be looking forward to Dylan being a brief and interesting preacher, as he says that he is inspired by Acts 20:7-11! If the choir would like to welcome Dylan with a Psalm, I suggest Psalm 139 or 91 which are two of his favourites about God’s love and care for us!
Although he loves cooking (‘inventing and discovering gluten and dairy free food that tastes like food!’) and makes a mean sausage roll, Dylan decided that Master Chef was not for him and took this great leap instead. He thought he had found his niche when he was working for the Anglican Communion Office, but he felt a ‘consistently niggling’ call to a more public commitment to ministry. The now bishop of Limerick, Kenneth Kearon, was his boss at the time and picked up on this call, sending Dylan to a certain someone who had also worked in the Anglican Communion Office. That certain someone was none other than Bishop Gregory Cameron! Dylan told Bishop Gregory all the reasons why he could not, or should not be ordained, to which Bishop Gregory replied that if God was calling Dylan, then none of those fears were obstacles to God. Dylan decided that Bishop Gregory was wrong and returned to London.
A year later, Dylan walked the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela and asked God what he should be with his life. Dylan already had an answer that he expected God to agree with, however, three-quarters of the way along, everything changed. While walking and praying, Dylan, ‘rounded a corner and was faced with a vista of green and rocky mountains that reminded me so much of home, I was so struck with Hiraeth I had to stop’. Dylan felt that this was God telling him it was time to come home, and be at home with the vocation that he was called to, that is, to be a priest. With his tail between his legs, Dylan sent Bishop Gregory an email when he reached Santiago, telling him he was right after all.
Although he is now following his heart, he still has a great fear of falling over his stole and landing flat on his face in front of everyone…and in the case that this happens…egg and chips will cheer him up! Dylan unfortunately has coeliac disease and so egg and chips is something he can eat in abundance without getting really ill.
Overall, Dylan is in awe that he will be serving God’s people in God’s church as it is a privilege that he, ‘can only live into with God’s Grace’. The Mission Area would like to wholeheartedly welcome him and wish him all the very best on his journey.
[Adapted very slightly from an article by Angharad in the May 2018 edition of “Messenger”.]
A very quirky footnote - Your webmaster, Tony, and Pam his wife have also visited most of the countries mentioned in this article. They even lived in one of them (Zambia) for four years from 1968 to 1972. What a small world!
Dylan is at his happiest sitting under a tree in his parents’ garden, in his favourite season of Autumn, looking out over the Dee Valley where he grew up, in Froncysyllte.
As a toddler, Dylan used to wander out into the garden, pick broccoli growing in the vegetable patch and merrily eat it raw, as it was very sweet straight off the plant. As soon as it was washed or cooked, he would not touch it. Much to his dismay, he was told he was no longer allowed to pick the broccoli, and Dylan took this literally. Not long after the broccoli-picking ban, his parents found him in the garden with his hands clasped behind his back, eating the broccoli straight off the plant, no picking done whatsoever! Dylan loves this tale and thinks it sums him up, ‘an adherent of the rules – but happy to work around them’!
When he was younger, Dylan was fortunate in getting to see the world in a way which was ‘beyond his means’. At the age of 15 he went on a school exchange to Japan, at 16 he went to Zimbabwe and Zambia with the mission charity Youth with a Mission, and at 18 he went to Lesotho with Dolen Cymru as part of an ecumenical youth visit. Despite being well-travelled, Dylan admits to not being very good at holidays, however, if he could go anywhere in the world on his next holiday, regardless of time and money, he would go back to South Africa to Cape Town and the West Coast where he visited for work and ‘fell a bit in love with this bit of the world’.
Not quite South Africa, but the Mission Area welcomes Dylan! In his role as a new Curate, Dylan is most excited about coming home to North Wales and being part of what God is doing in and around Ruthin. He is looking forward to joining with people in loving and serving God in everyday life, both in English and Welsh as he is bilingual.
Dylan admits that wanting to become a minister has been at the back of his mind for all his adult life, and has been an idea that he has, ‘flirted with and feared’ for two decades. He went to University in Liverpool where he studied a BA and an MA in theology. He has also lived in Yorkshire and London where he worked as a pastoral assistant in West Hampstead before getting a job at the Anglican Communion Office, supporting the work of Anglican churches throughout the world.
Dylan is joining us most recently from Cardiff where he has been training for four years through St. Padarn’s Institute. He is currently studying for a PhD and thinks that 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 is one of his favourite scriptures because it is the heart of his thesis, and we should be looking forward to Dylan being a brief and interesting preacher, as he says that he is inspired by Acts 20:7-11! If the choir would like to welcome Dylan with a Psalm, I suggest Psalm 139 or 91 which are two of his favourites about God’s love and care for us!
Although he loves cooking (‘inventing and discovering gluten and dairy free food that tastes like food!’) and makes a mean sausage roll, Dylan decided that Master Chef was not for him and took this great leap instead. He thought he had found his niche when he was working for the Anglican Communion Office, but he felt a ‘consistently niggling’ call to a more public commitment to ministry. The now bishop of Limerick, Kenneth Kearon, was his boss at the time and picked up on this call, sending Dylan to a certain someone who had also worked in the Anglican Communion Office. That certain someone was none other than Bishop Gregory Cameron! Dylan told Bishop Gregory all the reasons why he could not, or should not be ordained, to which Bishop Gregory replied that if God was calling Dylan, then none of those fears were obstacles to God. Dylan decided that Bishop Gregory was wrong and returned to London.
A year later, Dylan walked the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela and asked God what he should be with his life. Dylan already had an answer that he expected God to agree with, however, three-quarters of the way along, everything changed. While walking and praying, Dylan, ‘rounded a corner and was faced with a vista of green and rocky mountains that reminded me so much of home, I was so struck with Hiraeth I had to stop’. Dylan felt that this was God telling him it was time to come home, and be at home with the vocation that he was called to, that is, to be a priest. With his tail between his legs, Dylan sent Bishop Gregory an email when he reached Santiago, telling him he was right after all.
Although he is now following his heart, he still has a great fear of falling over his stole and landing flat on his face in front of everyone…and in the case that this happens…egg and chips will cheer him up! Dylan unfortunately has coeliac disease and so egg and chips is something he can eat in abundance without getting really ill.
Overall, Dylan is in awe that he will be serving God’s people in God’s church as it is a privilege that he, ‘can only live into with God’s Grace’. The Mission Area would like to wholeheartedly welcome him and wish him all the very best on his journey.
[Adapted very slightly from an article by Angharad in the May 2018 edition of “Messenger”.]
A very quirky footnote - Your webmaster, Tony, and Pam his wife have also visited most of the countries mentioned in this article. They even lived in one of them (Zambia) for four years from 1968 to 1972. What a small world!