James is Rector of the Benefice of Long Ashton with Barrow Gurney and Flax Bourton. He is an involved parent of two current Bristol Grammar School students and has been a supporter and friend to the OBs Society and to the school for many years. 

What are your best memories of BGS? 

Trips! When we were choosing Year 9 options, I was famously ‘headhunted’ from the Modern Languages department (where I was all set to take Russian) to the Classics department - all on the promise of trips to sunny destinations such as the Bay of Naples and Crete (Moscow didn’t really compare…) The opportunity to travel to these and other places (I also remember a very brave Religious Studies department taking us to Israel in Year 9!) enriched my education beyond measure and set me up for later periods of living, studying and working abroad. 

Can you remember any teachers who had an impact on you?

So many inspiring characters with a passion for sharing their knowledge and interest… Roger Perry sparked a love of Latin by teaching us how to greet our parents in the very first week (Salve, Pater!) and helping us translate the School Song. Barbara Bell brought the stories of the Cambridge Latin Course to life with an endless supply of creative activities, trips (again!) and sheer joy in the language. David Miller, who sadly died only just before I wrote this and is featured on the cover, treated us like scholars, set high standards and made the most labyrinthine grammar and sentence structure achievable. David Selwyn reciting Chaucer in perfect Middle English… David Lunn singing ‘Sumer is icumen in’ in his monk’s habit… Maddalena Davidson introducing me to Italian language and literature… I could go on!

What did you do after school?

I redeemed my previous dismissal of Modern Languages, and kept up my Classics, by combining the two in a Modern & Medieval Languages degree at Cambridge focusing on Latin and Italian. After a year abroad in Siena, Italy, I graduated in 2001 and then spent ten years working for PR and Marketing agencies in Cheltenham and Bristol. I eventually went freelance, including some work for BGS when Rod Mackinnon was Head, and coordinating a major capital fundraising appeal for our local church, before I was ordained and became a Vicar in 2015. 

Why the church?

The short answer is God! The longer answer is also God - who gradually, over a number of years, brought certain people across my path and drew me into the life of local churches in such a way that my own personal life and worldview was transformed - but also showed me how this way of living had the potential to change the world for the better. 

It seems to me that most major life events make more sense in hindsight than they do at the time - and I can now look back and see this was the purpose God has planned for me and my family all along, even though it took some major leaps of faith to get here!

What have been the highlights of your career?

Working in PR I focused specifically on fundraising for local communities which was incredibly gratifying. To be able to mobilise a community to come together around a project to purchase a derelict building, raise funds for its refurbishment and open it as a community resource hub. The community may not have been financially abundant but the enthusiasm and will to see the project realised made all the difference to the external funders we showed round. The day the new facility opened was a real celebration. As BGS knows well, passion and enthusiasm are more important than money!

In church life, the opportunity to serve abroad was life-changing for us all as a family. We spent a year living and working in Athens from 2018-19 when I served as an Assistant Priest at St Paul’s Anglican Church there. The girls went to international school and we all met such an amazing, diverse group of new friends from all over the world. It was a truly formative year. 

What motivated you to reconnect with the school and the OB Society?

I had never really lost touch and always enjoyed receiving news from school - but when we were looking at options for schools for our daughters and visited BGS, I realised that so many of the things that were special for me about my time there were still evident - including some of the teachers who had taught me 30 years previously! I don’t think that’s an accident and speaks of the enduring ‘pull’ and value of the BGS community. It has been great to re-join the community with a different perspective as a parent. 

What’s next for you?

No major changes foreseen in the coming years… We have GCSEs for daughter no 1 next year and then daughter no 2 making the transition into the Senior School the year after. There are plenty of projects in my parishes to keep me occupied and we love living in Long Ashton. 

What motivates you?

I often joke that, in my PR career, I got paid for creating good news for clients but now I have the best news of all to give away for free! 

I really love the opportunity my ministry gives me to meet a huge variety of people, to listen to their stories and explore with them how God might be working in and through all that. It’s great to be able to offer something that makes a difference or helps bring clarity. 

It helps that I’m relentlessly nosy - which I prefer to term ‘holy curiosity’. I need to get up and out of my office regularly for a walk round the parish to see who I bump into. 

How do you relax?

The Vicarage has a huge garden which I enjoy trying to get to grips with on days off. Away from home, I find being at the coast really restorative - there’s something about the sea, whatever the weather. As a family, we spend a lot of time together in the kitchen cooking up feasts of various descriptions. I might also sometimes be found propping up the bar in The Angel Inn at the top of the lane where we live… the pub’s about the same age as the church and does much the same job in terms of building community and providing a space to mark life’s milestones. 

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Seize more opportunities when they present themselves. It’s too easy to think you’ll leave it for now and do it at some other time in the future; or not to try something new because you’re not sure how it will turn out. The older me has learned to say: go for it, what’s the worst that can happen?!