Hannah has found God to be a constant presence with her, even in the chaos and the mess of life.
Hannah has never left the Church since growing up in an atmospheric 800 year old church building with her dad as the vicar. There is something about the memory of that place and her encounters with God that has never left her and helped to embed the centrality of faith in her life.
“Being raised in the Church means faith has been part of me for my whole life and I put Jesus at the centre. The meaning of this has changed over the years as I navigated the different stages of life and went on to be ordained when I was 26. I have experienced a lot of darkness, but the Spirit has always been there hovering over the water and bringing order out of the chaos.”
Hannah has spent much of her time in ordained ministry working in the north and the midlands with the deaf community, expanding deaf church networks and challenging churches to be more accessible. Being part of the deaf community, Hannah’s experience of church has been very different to those in the hearing community.
“I have always known my identity to be in Christ but being fully deaf from a young age has meant I have long had a sense of identity as a person on the margins. As Christians, we are all called to be with people on the margins and I have always felt a calling to social justice, and a commitment to working with people on the margins of society and the Church.”
As the Chaplain amongst the deaf community in the diocese, Hannah is excited to see God at work in all areas of the Church and in the lives of people across the diocese:
“I choose to notice all the big and small things God does in my life, those tiny mustard seed moments where I look closely and can see God at work in other people, building the Kingdom behind the scenes. In the busyness and mess of life, family and work it is always possible to find God reaching out and growing new things for us, he brings new .”
The Oxford Diocesan Council for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing provides support, guidance and a network of Deaf churches. Why not find out how your church could be more accessible to the deaf community?