Hello from a sunny and very hot (37c today!) Kimberley, South Africa. As St. George’s 'priest-to-be', I thought it might be helpful if I were to write something brief by way of a hello and introduction. My Name is Paul Cowan and I’m presently on a one-year secondment to Oxford’s link diocese of Kimberley & Kuruman. Although I’ve been based at St Cyprian’s Cathedral in Kimberley since September, for the next three months up to Easter I'll be working in a neighbouring parish, which is presently without a priest. My wife's name is Hannah and we have two children, Samuel who is 5, and due to start year one in September, and Joel who is 3 - both lively and determined boys.
I'’ve been in one form of full-time Christian ministry or another for over 16 years now. Prior to this secondment I was the curate at All Saints', Wokingham. Before training for ordination, Hannah and I both worked in Tower Hamlets, East London, for an independent ecumenical Christian charity that provided an intensive residential alcohol and drug therapy program for homeless men. We are both qualified counsellors and spent nine years facilitating group therapy and one-to-one counselling. We met through work, but had been working in the same small office for three years before we started going out together (as Hannah is keen to tell people, I was a bit slow on the uptake!). And in the dim and distant past before that, I managed a halfway house in central London for young homeless people.
So far I have found life here in Kimberley to be full of emotional and experiential extremes. For the poor in South Africa, life continues to be too cheap, and pastorally the work has at times been intense and emotionally demanding. Also, shortly after arriving, the Dean was off ill for a few weeks, leaving me the sole full-time priest. At the other extreme, we as a family have loved our regular trips to the local outdoor pool, overnight stays in game reserves, watersports on the Vaal River, and we’re now counting down the days to our two-week holiday in Cape Town.
Lastly to say that I was delighted to be offered the post of St. George's, and Hannah and I are looking forward to being with you in Wash Common.
God bless,
Rev. Paul Cowan
January 2006