A DOCTOR born in Thailand has been inducted as the new vicar for Tywyn and surrounding area.
On Thursday evening in St Cadfan’s Church, Rev Dr Ruth Hansford was inducted and licensed as the vicar and leader of the Bro Ystumanner Ministry Area.
The married mother of two will be ministering alongside the people of the Bro Ystumanner to serve the communities around Tywyn, Aberdyfi and Llanegryn in south Meirionnydd.
Ruth’s journey to Bro Ystumanner and the vicarage in Tywyn begins in the oriental East!
She was born and brought up in Thailand, where her parents were missionaries with the Overseas Missionary Fellowship.
She went to boarding school in Malaysia aged five, followed by a secondary boarding school back here in the UK.
She went on to university at King’s College London to study pharmacology, which she describes as meaning that you “can’t dispense drugs, but can research into their creation”.
Having completed her degree, she decided that working in pharmaceuticals was not for her and worked for a year with a church in inner-city Liverpool, before returning to London to study for a PhD in toxicology (the part of pharmolocolgy she liked best) at the School of Pharmacy.
After three years, she wanted to go into scientific writing but all jobs needed writing experience.
Instead she trained as a clinical biochemist, where you do tests and provide results for doctors, at Southmead Hospital in Bristol, before getting a job at Great Ormond Street Hospital back in London and King’s College Hospital after that.
It was at this point that she felt called to work more directly with people. She wanted to do more than tests and telling doctors about their patients’ test results.
Living in Croydon at the time she went to see her local vicar and then the Director of Ordinands in the Diocese of Southwark, interested in exploring ordained ministry.
As she says: “I went from one person to another, one selection committee to another, and no-one ever said no!”
Ruth went back to Bristol to train for ordination at Trinity College.
She describes herself as an exception to her ordinand colleagues there, as she felt a strong call to rural ministry, which was not necessarily what was expected of an ordinand from the Diocese of Southwark.
She was thus ordained in 2003 and 2004 in the Diocese of Exeter, serving as a curate in the Hartland Coast Team, centred around Parkham (west of Bideford and Barnstaple), then as team vicar in Northmoor Team Ministry based in Hatherleigh, close to Dartmoor.
So what is the attraction of Christian ministry in rural areas?
“It is the rootedness of many people, the sense of community and belonging, and the opportunities that this gives in ministry,” said Ruth.
“Rural people are committed to their place and neighbours in a much clearer way than in suburbs or a large town, and it is all built on relationships.
“And then there is the quirkiness, the old and unusual traditions, such as the ‘walrus dip’ in Hatherleigh, where volunteers, in various costumes, stood in the river each New Year’s Day to raise money for their local charity or organisation.”
Ruth is looking forward to discovering Tywyn’s traditions, and has already done some research.
“I’m looking forward to Race the Train here in Tywyn, as it is events like this which are distinctive and bring life to a community,” she said.
“I love the connectedness of rural communities, the slower pace, the fact that things take a bit longer, and, of course, the landscape that is just so beautiful.”
She added: “Initially I will want to listen to people, see where they are, and see where they think the future lies. I’ll want to work with everyone to take these thoughts forward and draw Bro Ystumanner together, to be more of an extended family which works together.”