OTN Co-Chair begins training to become a Church of England priest
OTN Co-Chair Sarah Hobbs, who began training for ministry in the Church of England last month. PHOTO: Jo Clare-Young.
WATCH Sarah’s video message from when she became an OTN trustee in 2020 [2.5mins].
A NEW academic year is bringing new opportunities and challenges for one of the Open Table Network (OTN)’s trustees, as she starts studying theology and ministry this term.
Sarah Hobbs, Co-Chair of trustees of OTN, learned in June that the Church of England Diocese of Leeds recommended her for training in preparation for ordination as a priest, and she became an ordinand.
“It is a privilege finally to begin my training in the hope that one day I will be able to serve God as a member of the clergy.”
Last month, her course began at St Hild’s College at Mirfield, near Huddersfield. Sarah will study for three years part-time before ordination.
The call to serve in the church is not new for Sarah. She was born and grew up in Southampton, Hampshire. Until the age of 17, Sarah rarely went to church, then she came to Christian faith following a school mission. Since then, she has been part of a number of different denominations and churches, including helping to lead a church plant in a pub!
Sarah knew she was transgender from a very young age and spent a lot of her life fighting against it, particularly as it seemed to be at odds with her faith. She left that church and drifted for a while with no church to go to.
She transitioned to live full-time as female in 2017, and really missed being part of a church family. So, she joined Ripon Cathedral where, Sarah says, she was ‘really welcomed and very much supported.’ She has loved being given the chance to be involved in the work of the church again.
Sarah has also been a consultant and trainer since 2009, and managing director of the company since 2017. Alongside this, Sarah has volunteered in a range of roles for several voluntary, charity and faith organizations. She began volunteering with OTN in 2019, supporting a weekend retreat for LGBTQ+ Christians. She became a founding trustee of OTN when it became a charity in 2021, and was elected as Co-Chair by the board, alongside Revd Dr Alex Clare-Young, a trans, non-binary minister in the United Reformed Church.
Sarah says her sense of call to ordination came from being part of that LGBTQ+ Christian retreat:
‘I have felt called to ordained ministry for 30 years, but I believed that my gender identity was incompatible with that calling. My time on retreat in 2019 was a breakthrough, and I realised that I needed to begin the discernment process. It is a privilege finally to begin my training in the hope that one day I will be able to serve God as a member of the clergy.’
