LEGACY OF SERVICE
After all, it is easy, in such a school, to imagine oneself important, entitled, grandiose, different – and, by extension, to become those things. Winchester, in my experience, did not allow this. Quite how it emphasised that we were there because of others’ gifts, and thus called to dedicate ourselves to others’ service, I am not sure. Perhaps it was the routine of Chapel, which led for me to faith and vocation, or the example of extraordinary people before us who had left that monastic, heavenly environment determined to contribute positively to the wider world. Perhaps it was something as simple as the lack of uniform, a daily reminder that we were not – as some uniforms shout aloud – set aside from others, but part of the flock. Whatever the means, I left convinced that a Winchester education was a privilege and that, like Henry Sugar, my job now was to put the wonderful blessings of my experience to some wider value. So it was that I joined the civil service, from which I was seconded to Parliament, for which I then decided to stand( I lost hideously). Through all that, the call of the God I had grown to believe in during school Choral Evensongs became stronger, and I trained for the priesthood while overseeing educational partnerships and community service at Charterhouse. Now, I am hugely fortunate to combine a rural, parish ministry with a national role, as chief executive of Clergy Support Trust, which last year helped over a fifth of the Church of England’ s priests with their financial, mental and physical health. My story is no more, and far less, interesting than many others’ – but that it was shaped by Winchester, and the values of that school we love and share, I have no doubt.
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