VIEW PROFILE: 'Ilminster is a wonderful place' - Alastair Wallace

THIS week View reporter MARION DRAPER talks to Ilminster Rector ALASTAIR WALLACE about his time at St Mary’s Church and his love of the town

The Reverend Prebendary Alastair Wallace, who became Rector of St Mary’s Church in Ilminster in 1999, was brought up in Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham.

He has been married to wife Judy for 38 years and they have three children; the eldest of whom is now a Curate in Trull.

Reverend Wallace trained for the ministry at Trinity College, Bristol.

After ordination in 1975, he served his curacy at St Leonard's, Exeter, and then spent a time as Chaplain of a theological college in Cambridge.

From 1983 to 1996 he was Rector of St Michael with St Paul, Bath, a city-centre church which is part of the Bath Abbey Group.

During that time he was Rural Dean of Bath for six years and taught Church History on a part-time basis at Trinity College, Bristol.

In 1996 he moved to Wells Cathedral as Sub-Dean and Assistant Diocesan Missioner, developing a program of day study courses on basic Christian themes under the heading 'Know Your Faith' before coming to Ilminster.

Geography may have ‘missed him out,’ as he put it, but his real passion was history which he read at university and is still his first love.

He undertook research into the history of the Diocese of Exeter in the late seventeenth century. It also led him into his ministry:

“ I had no thoughts of being ordained until my second year of university.

“It was the conviction that Christianity is true as a faith, not just as a set of ideals that are attractive.

“The life, death and resurrection of Jesus are true, historical facts and the true historical side has always fascinated me.

“There is historical evidence for the resurrection which could seem barmy on the face of it but there is evidence for it having actually happened.

“I am particularly interested in the 17th century when many of the communities were so isolated and then they went into the civil war and the aftermath of that, particularly the effect on the church.

“We have been called a Christian country but the Christian church grew up in a multi-faith society and we are now in a multi-faith society.

“After uni I did a year as a porter in Fulham Hospital which was very useful experience, I was moving everything from oxygen bottles to bodies for the morgue and was seeing people in need all the time, especially on the specialist cancer ward where a lot of the patients were young mums. It was really heart-wrenching.

“When I am writing a sermon, I think around a subject and what is relevant to the people that will be there.

“If I feel there are important issues I have to make it palatable. For instance on Remembrance Sunday, I am aware there will be a lot of young people there and you have got to avoid being party political.

“I have no typical day. We have prayers of one kind or another at 9:30 most days and on Mondays I meet with the other clergy.

“There are fixed items such as meetings and school assemblies and home groups of bible studies but most of the work is unpredictable.

“There are around 50 funerals a year, a dozen weddings - which involve several meetings with the couple - and we have about 30 plus baptisms.

“Then there are the personal visits; the longer you work in a place the more people get to know you, they have to learn to trust you and when you first move to a new place it can take two or three years before people feel they can unload their troubles.

“It is an important part of the work to have a listening ear and a shoulder to cry on, sometimes if there is a real problem we can refer someone to a professional for help.

“The training within the church is a lot better now than it used to be and there are a lot of opportunities for in-service training.

“The old idea that the vicar was a ‘Jack of all trades’ is thankfully long gone.

“I remember the first funeral I went to as a curate, the vicar passed it over to me; I had had one lecture on funerals.

“Normally you would have pastoral contact with the family beforehand, but that was an exception.

“During my time in the church a lot has changed. The church used to say be ordained then spend 40 years in a parish, then it moved to getting some life experience first.

“There is a lot of merit in that and there are a lot more older people coming into the ministry with a huge amount of life experience.

“When I was training, there were some nurses who had come back from Africa. Writing essays was no problem for me; they couldn’t write an essay but had a great deal of pastoral experience.

“You are always on the job. Even if you have a day off and are round and about people know who you are; you can’t turn people down if they need help so you have to live with it and manage it.

“There is a lot more lay leadership now and the vicar is not expected to do everything in the church, but I don’t think I would like the pattern you get in some American churches where they keep office hours.

“I do get a day off a week and love reading, and Judy and I enjoy walking when we can.

“Ilminster is a wonderful place and there is a lot of good feeling towards the church.

“Unfortunately many places see it as irrelevant, even a threat.

“Sometimes I feel like a big kid at Christmas. I get a real lump in my throat on Christmas Eve when we have the Nativity play, and with the candlelight there is something that appeals on a deep level emotionally to many people who may not usually come to church.

“I think people do find God at different stages in their lives and I don’t think it helps to say more bums on seats.

“We need to say are we presenting the Christian faith in a way relevant to everyday life.”

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