Trainee vicar takes up Gainford and Winston role

TWO parishes in Teesdale are to get their first vicar-in-training since the 1800s.

Newly ordained Revd Frances Cooper has stepped into the role of deacon at Gainford’s St Mary’s Church and St Andrew’s Church, in Winston. The 60-year-old, from Bishop Auckland, is the first woman to ever hold the post in Gainford and the first person since the Napoleonic Wars to take up the curacy.

She will aid Revd Eileen Harrop with some of her work in the dale.

“It’s fantastic – it’s good to make a bit of history,” said Mrs Cooper. The former lay minister has worked in finance and manufacturing most of her life and continues to work full time in Newton Aycliffe. She offered practical help to her nearby church as treasurer and a member of the parochial church council before she felt a higher calling.

“I was doing bible studies and I felt a complete change,” she added. “God used to talk to me – I got really scared as the thought of ordained ministry at the time was terrifying.

“I thought lay ministry might be the thing for me but I knew it was not. I got licensed as a lay minister and my parish priest told me I was in the wrong place.”

Although confirmed when she was a child, Mrs Cooper only returned to the church 12 years ago after the death of her brother in New Zealand.

She said: “I did attend church but I fell away – probably because my marriage broke down and I carried a lot of guilt about that.

“But I always had a strong urge to go back. When my brother died I went to church because I could not get to his funeral and I wanted a better form of closure on his death.”

Becoming an ordained minister involves undertaking a series of interviews and tests as well as a three-day residential retreat. Mrs Cooper completed the rigorous course this year culminating in her ordination at Durham Cathedral on July 2.

“It’s not an easy process,” she said. “For an unpaid job, I do not know anyone who would do that if that did not think it was the right thing to do.”

Mrs Cooper paid tribute to her husband, Ian, as well as friends and work colleagues who had offered support.

She admitted she hadn’t visited Gainford or Winston before she took up the post but revealed she had been struck by the beauty and pride villagers have for their dale.

She added: “God is already at work here – it’s just really to see what he’s doing and how we can develop that. There are a lot of things happening here – I will enjoy being a part of that and adding to that”

As the priest in charge, Mrs Harrop will mentor Mrs Cooper through her first year as curate.

“Any newly ordained deacon, especially in their first year, will find it’s an adjustment,” said Mrs Harrop. “You inhabit a different existence.”

Mrs Harrop revealed she would not be easing back on her work in Teesdale but asking if Ms Cooper would like step into certain roles. “Our parishioners are very excited about this,” she added.