A biographical note in case it helps - but maybe every preacher should remain simply "a voice crying out in the wilderness".

Anno Domini

I am now 60 years old.

I was born and grew up in Perth, Western Australia. After graduating (in Classics) from the University of Western Australia, I came to Europe, to Germany for a short time, and then settled in England, where I have been living in Oxford for the last 30 years.

In 1979, after teaching in schools for 10 years, I took up community work in Blackbird Leys, a "social housing" estate on the edge of Oxford. That's where I am now.

Church background

Brought up Roman Catholic, I studied for a time in the diocesan seminary in Perth, and spent a year in the Jesuit noviciate in Melbourne. In Oxford I joined an evangelical Anglican prayer group and later was much changed by participation in the Charismatic renewal movement in the Catholic Church.

In 1979 I joined Holy Family ecumenical church in Blackbird Leys, and it is this church which now employs me as a local community worker, with a remit to assist community organizations in the area. As the church is, among other things, Methodist, I was able to train as a local Preacher and now serve as such in the Oxford Methodist Circuit.

Experience

This life has taught me a few things: that Australia is the oldest country in the world and Iceland the newest; that I cannot write an academic book, but can preach; and that the world's most powerful nation is afraid of Nicaragua.

The rest I’m still learning.

Jim Hewitt