The Author
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 65 years old
I was born and grew up in Perth, Western Australia. After graduating from university, I came to Europe, to Germany for a short time, and then settled in England. I have been living in Oxford for the last 35 years.
In England I was a school teacher for 10 years till in 1979 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
I was brought up Roman Catholic and studied for a time in the diocesan seminary in Perth. I spent a year in the Jesuit noviciate in Melbourne. I graduated (in Classics) at the University of Western Australia. In Oxford I joined an evangelical Anglican prayer group and later was much changed by 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 employed me as a local community worker, with a remit to assist community organizations in the area. I am now "retired" (which means I get a nice pension insted of a salary). 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 I can preach; and that the world’s most powerful nation is afraid of Nicaragua.
The rest I’m still learning.
Jim Hewitt
