I love the way the Lord meets us where we are. My commitment to Him began in 1972 when I dropped into a church on the Wirral. It so happened a mum stood up at the front and described her healing from cancer. I remember thinking, “So God is around and doing things.”

 This was the beginning of my healing but in my case from life’s experiences. I began to understand I could place trust in what a Masai friend calls “The God who loves people.” This friend had only known gods who evoked fear and who made demands. He was astounded to find there was a God who had walked this earth in love and acceptance and final sacrifice.

From this you may gather I have worked in east Africa for SOMA leading diocesan conferences. It was in these conferences that I really grew into the work of the Holy Spirit. My London parish used to really appreciate my disappearing for two weeks at a time: “Matthew, you are so fired up when you return!”

It was in east Africa that I experienced the presence and gospel of Jesus to transform hope and broken communities. It was also there that I found praying in the name of Jesus defeats the enemy and his minions. This led to my work as Deliverance Adviser in London where I rejoiced as many found freedom and a new living faith.

My work of 42 years as a priest has encompassed a Yorkshire market town, a scouse new town, London suburbia and now rural Hampshire. I live among a group of six little, local and ordinary parishes and we are beginning to discover how the living Lord meets us where we are.

My most treasured place of meeting is in the silence of an Anglican Benedictine Monastery. My three retreats a year put a brake on my impetuosity and perspective on my activism. One monk regularly asks questions whose answers lead to ever deeper healing and ever deeper wonder that the hands which threw stars into the heavens also reach down to me.