Myra Blyth
In 1975, I became the first female undergraduate to be admitted to Regent’s Park College, Oxford. After studying theology there, and at the same time training for Baptist ministry, I was ordained in 1978 at the age of 21 and took up my first job as a local minister in south London. Since then, I have had four decades of wonderful experiences of ministry in diverse contexts: four years in local ministry in south London; six years in national ecumenical youth work, co-ordinating youth exchanges across the cold war divide between eastern and western Europe; 12 years engaging with churches world wide in disaster situations through the World Council of Churches: Inter-Church Aid and The Refugee World Service; four years as Deputy General Secretary of the Baptist Union and most recently (coming full circle) 17 years as chaplain and tutor in theology at Regent’s Park College Oxford.
The thread running through my story has been a commitment to see faith and worship inform and inspire the way people live. The challenges have changed through the decades but the call to be open hospitable and welcoming towards those who have been excluded or harmed on social, religious, racial, gender or sexuality grounds has been a constant. I have have made mistakes en route (mea culpa to those I have hurt), and have had to learn over and again how to face my own prejudices, and to allow God’s Spirit to free me from patterns habits and attitudes that are more cultural than Gospel. With every twist and turn along the way I have been made aware that conversion is not a one off moment but an often repeated experience of repentance and transformation. It is always a challenge but equally a privilege to encounter those who are in a different place to myself and to become - because of the other- more the person God intends.