Giles Kendall - A newspaper article

St Mary's new vicar, the Rev Dr Giles Kendall, might have big plans for his new Kingswinford patch, but he knows what his priorities are.

"Can you call me back, I'm just about to start painting the hall," he says above a din of decorating activity when I call him the other day.

Make no mistake though, the father-of-three has more in store for the area than a lick of paint.

He is moving to the village's parish church from Sawston in Ely diocese and relishing the challenge of a wider mission field - Kingswinford is three times the size of his former spot.

Although the official ceremony to licence him as vicar does not take place until Sunday, the 50-year-old is already settling in to the job he found almost by chance.

"I'd been at Sawston for nearly seven years, that was my post after training," he explains.

"I was looking for a job but only had a month or two left to find one because I couldn't move later in the year as I had a child still in school.

"But I put my papers round the various dioceses and the bishop of Dudley saw it and thought there could be a match.

"My wife Kate and I came to check the place out and decided we'd like to come if they asked us - which they did.
It all happened very quickly and I don't know the area well but it is a place I was directed to, definitely."

Dr Kendall is a dyed in the wool Southerner - originally from Winchester and theologically trained at Wareham in Dorset - and he admits the Black Country feels "up North" to him.

But his former career as a scientist researching tropical diseases has prepared him for exploring the unknown, so even deepest Kingswinford doesn't inspire too much trepidation.

“I had a long career as a scientist, a molecular biologist actually," he says.

"I did medical research for about 12-and-a-half-years. I worked on tropical diseases and later on matters to do with the nervous system.

"It was quite a big switch of career, but essentially, I was called.

I felt God called me to explore this type of ministry really, although it took me a long time - several years - to get in."

And is there a clash between faith and science? Not according to Mr Kendall, who is keen to avoid over-simplified definitions.

"The science of Isaac Newton for example is of course marvellous, but only a small part of what we're discussing," he ventures.

"People like Albert Einstein would tell you of a different type of science which is a very mysterious place - science and religion have a lot to say to each other, I don't see any tensions."

And talking of miracles, how about the doubling in size of a church congregation?

Mr Kendall was involved in one such statistic-defying act as part of the Church of England's Fresh Expressions drive, and he is hoping for similar success here.

"I'd like to broaden the appeal of church to all ages," he says.

"In Sawston we ran an open door type service which was empowering for people to run themselves, and that's the type of ministry the church has to run with - as well as the traditional things".

"We do need the tradition, it's an important part of who we are", he adds hastily.

So what with juggling old and new, getting to know the patch, reaching out to the community and building up 'Team Kingswinford' with the Church of the Ascension in Wall Heath, Dr Kendall is about to become a very busy man.

But first he'd better finish painting his Penzer Street rectory.