THE annual Petertide Ordinations have taken place at Truro Cathedral.

This year, 11 people were ordained as priests or deacons by the Bishop of Truro, the Rt Rev Tim Thornton, during two services.

The Bishop of Exeter, the Rt Rev Sarah Mullally, was invited to lead the pre-ordination retreat, as well as give the sermon.

In the Anglican Church Petertide, also known as St Peter’s Tide, it is the major one of two traditional periods for the ordination of new priests and is held on the Sunday nearest to St Peter’s Day.

Those priested on Saturday, July 2, included the Rev Heather West, who will serve in the Three Rivers Benefice. This includes the churches of Lawhitton, Lewannick, Lezant, North Hill and South Petherwin.

Heather has been involved in church life for many years and was first drawn to ministry while living in Wiltshire. When she and her husband Robin moved back to Cornwall in 2005, Heather began to feel called to do more.

The mum of three and grandmother undertook the South West Ministry Training Course (SWMTC) and managed to complete her training while also caring for her mother-in-law and alongside her commitments within her church.

She said she is looking forward to working in the Three Rivers Benefice alongside the Rev Anne Brown.

Those deaconed on the Friday evening, July 1, included Teresa Folland, Assistant Curate of Launceston and Annabel King, Assistant Curate of South Hill with Callington, Stoke Climsland and Linkinhorne.

Teresa said she is looking forward to serving God in Launceston.

She said: “The church has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. At the age of three I was sent to the only Sunday School in our village at the Methodist Chapel.

“Girls’ Brigade was added to Sunday School and by the time I was a teenager my life revolved around attending or leading younger children at GB and Sunday School, singing in a GB choir and somewhere in between I managed to fit in school and O Levels.

“At 17, more by accident than design, I managed to get a job with a bank and left my beloved Cornish village, family and friends and moved abroad to Exeter! My career in banking spanned over 25 years and took me to Bristol, back to Exeter on to Plymouth and eventually I returned to Cornwall in 2001.

“My Christian faith also went on a journey across the borders of different denominations, Methodist, Baptist, URC, a Charismatic ‘House Church’ and sometimes no church.”

She said following the birth of her son during a period of no church, she felt the need to get back to church again, and she joined an Anglican Church in Exeter.

Later, with her husband, she returned to her childhood village of Dobwalls. It was at Dobwalls during St Petertide seven years ago that she said she first heard the ‘call’, but that she ‘completely misunderstood’ what God was asking of her, adding: “By now I had left banking, was family pastoral worker for the Anglican Church and Captain of GB, so I thought God was affirming what I was doing.

“It took two more years and many promptings for me to recognise that God was calling me to ordination, a very different way to seek, serve and follow Christ.”

Annabel King, Assistant Curate of South Hill with Callington, Stoke Climsland and Linkinhorne, began her ministry at the age of 13 — she became a Sunday school teacher following her confirmation, as was the practice in her church. She was given a class to look after in the thriving Sunday school and a book from which to prepare a Bible story each week — that was the training.

Looking back Annabel has reflected on how much trust they were given at such a young age. She remained until she left home at the age of 18 to go to Art College.

Annabel’s first career was in graphic design, taking a break to raise her family. When the time came to return to the workplace drawing boards had been replaced by computers so she retrained as a counselor, and joined Crossline, a Christian counselling organisation that was part of Plymouth City Mission, in 2004 as a volunteer counsellor and telephone listener, later becoming manager.

Ten years later Annabel is still at Crossline and is happy to be continuing in that role alongside her ordained ministry.

She moved to Cornwall with her family in 1992 and became involved in the life of Stoke Climsland Church. Following Bishop Bill’s review of the diocese entitled ‘The People of God’ in 2001, Annabel was one of the members of her church to take the ‘Local Worship Leader’ training in 2002.

In 2009 she began to train for Reader ministry, being licensed in 2012. It was only after this that Annabel said she had a ‘voice that wouldn’t go away’ which led her to offer herself for ordained ministry.

Having lived in Cornwall for 24 years, Annabel will serve her curacy in the part of South East Cornwall where she has lived all that time, covering the Callington Cluster of Churches. Annabel has three adult children who have now ‘flown the nest’ and are pursuing their chosen careers.

She expressed gratitude to all her family and friends who have supported her through the period of training and said she looks forward to the next chapter of her ministry.