Female Priest
Anne Farmer
For the last 10 years Anne Farmer passed Trinity College almost daily and she never dreamed for a second that she would ever study there, until 18 months ago…
Anne Farmer passed Trinity College in Stoke Bishop many times over the years but she never imaged she would be a student there.
In 2005 she won a place to study and has gone on a real journey of discovery.
Bristolian Anne had assumed she knew the city well, but as she started training and worked in different areas of the city she realised that she had only just started to scratch the surface.
Anne spent five weeks at St Agnes Church
As part of her studies Anne spent five weeks at St Agnes Church in St Pauls.
During that time she realised her perceptions of the area had been mainly formed by negative media coverage but she wanted to get to know the ’real’ St Pauls.
For Anne, the placement has been incredibly liberating: “You know a place by reputation,” she explains.
“I’ve realised it’s not the place, it’s the people that live in the place - and to be accepted by this community is brilliant.”
Anne believes that in this short time her faith changed too.
“It’s grown, it’s broadened and I’m better for it, because I think I was quite narrow in what I expected from God.
“Coming into different churches I realised that he is a bigger, broader God and he is worshipped in so many different ways that it has enhanced what I think and feel about him.”
Transcript
My name’s Anne Farmer and I grew up in Bristol and have spent a lot of my adult life here, and 18 months ago I began training to be a priest in the Church of England at Trinity College in Stoke Bishop. But training has shown me another side to Bristol that I’d seen before.
I was really pleased to be able to do a five week church placement in the Parish of St Pauls at St Agnes Church and, for a very brief time, I got to know a little bit about the community in St Pauls.
[Sound of door opening]
So, as you can see, it’s a really beautiful bright church. All the pews have been removed and they’ve been replaced with these red-orange flame-coloured chairs with lights that sort of come down on to them and it’s beautifully bright and you’ll probably notice something a bit strange about the church; it’s actually back-to-front. And if we turn our back on the front of the church we actually look… [voice fades out]
I think I overcame a barrier, I think I overcame thirty five years of not knowing part of my city, not knowing a group of people in my city. That’s a very liberating feeling actually because you know a place by reputation and I’ve realised that it’s not the place, it’s the people that live in the place.
Through my eyes now, I think I see things differently. I think I see a lot more people who just want to know everything’s OK, that somebody cares for them and that where they are has a worth, and it doesn’t matter where you live.
I see Bristol more as people, not places. It doesn’t matter where you live, what car you drive, what job you’ve got, if you are accepted for who you are and there is something really releasing in being accepted, and I was accepted into the community at St Pauls and that was far more precious than any degree or certificate I could have earnt by studying hard. To be accepted, for me, was wonderful.
This has been a journey worth taking because I’m more, more than I was. I’ve learnt so much, I’ve gained so much and I’ve had to work out, struggle through issues and feelings and emotions and I think I’m coming out the other side stronger and more positive because of it.
