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Well-travelled vicar to settle in Great Yarmouth
Well-travelled vicar to settle in Great Yarmouth
Rev Richard Washington who has lived in a number of countries across the globe, has decided to make Great Yarmouth his home for the foreseeable future
Rev. Richard Washington was ordained as Team Vicar for the Parish of Great Yarmouth at the end of September. However he hasn’t always lived in Norfolk. Having been born to a Dutch mother with Caribbean heritage and an English father, Richard’s life was multicultural from the start. As well as the Netherlands, Richard’s study and work have also taken him to France, Belgium, Poland and the United States, and he is able to speak French and Polish fluently
Nevertheless, Richard is excited to make connections between his birthplace of Rotterdam and his new home in Great Yarmouth: “coming to Yarmouth actually means that the only thing that separates me from my birthplace is this sea”
Part of Richard’s job is pastoral care at the Pathway Café and Resource Centre which provides hot meals, crisis food parcels and signposting, and he describes how his fluency in Polish has enabled him to communicate with some of the Polish, Latvian, Lithuanian, and Ukrainian visitors. Richard comments that his travel experience not only helps him to be able to converse with them, but also to begin to understand how “bewildering” and “disorientating” it can be to live in a country where you don’t understand the language, systems or culture
Richard is able to identify a clear sense of direction and calling in his life. He describes how in his childhood he “felt very called by God, very held by Jesus, very understood, very valued, very loved.” However, when Richard entered a career in acting he experienced a time of great challenge. “I think a lot of my life at that time was about trying to fill hollow spaces in myself…I didn’t have the anchor of faith.” Gradually, this new life took him away from church and for quite some years he thought he could live without faith in Jesus
A time of sofa-surfing and unemployment followed. Again, Richard uses these experiences to relate to some of the people he meets at the Pathway Cafe. “It doesn’t take much for the floor to collapse…I don’t see such a big distinction between me and the people we’re supporting. I don’t want to say ‘me’ and ‘them,’ because it’s ‘us’”
Richard’s return to faith came about during his subsequent time in Poland. He observes that “nobody’s embarrassed about faith in Poland… I had what I would call a reconversion, and a very strong sense at that moment that I was being called to something.” From there Richard embarked on a journey to ordination which he compares to Jonah’s flight from God, but which ended with him enrolling in the Eastern Region Ministry course, from there completing his curacy in Attleborough, and finally arriving in Great Yarmouth
Much of Richard’s spare time is spent exploring Great Yarmouth and looking after his dog Maks. But his strength derives from the time he spends each morning with God, which he describes as “reassembling of the pieces with His help”
Richard is in no hurry to return to travelling the globe, and believes that his calling is now to work alongside people in Great Yarmouth, recognising and nurturing the goodness which God has placed in the town and people. “I think this is a town of immense possibility” he observes, “God is dying to enable all sorts of beautiful things to happen in this town…what an amazing place”
Photo supplied by Rev Richard Washington
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Anna Heydon, 30/11/2024
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