A priest with a passion for sharing her love of Jesus will take up the post of Priest in Charge of three Huddersfield parishes next month.
Julie Anderson was born just outside of Durham, where her parents still live, and has had a series of jobs from air traffic controller to supermarket till operator before she was called for ordination in 2011.
She will take up the post of Priest in Charge of the Emmanuel Team, the parishes of South Crosland, Armitage Bridge and Newsome, early next month and will be licensed by Bishop Nick on 24 April.
Julie has just written a letter for the parish magazine introducing herself in which she says: “ I am very excited about coming and working with you all and looking to see how we are going to further the Kingdom of God in our parishes!”
Julie is a daughter, a sister, a mother, a mother in law, a grandmother, an auntie and a friend and a widow. She was married to Pete for nearly 17 years but has been a widow for just over 11 years. Her late husband was in the RAF and so they moved around quite a bit – which led to the many and varied jobs including Air traffic controller, running a pub, a practice manager in a doctors surgery, a hydrology assistant at the National Rivers Authority and a till operator in a supermarket.
The couple eventually settled in Cambridgeshire and following her husband’s death, Julie changed jobs – she was working on the A1/M between Peterborough and Cambridge - and joined Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge as a PA to two gynaecologists where she helped to run the uro-gynaecology department.
Julie was a churchwarden and a Reader before she was called to ordination and she trained at St John’s College Nottingham. After ordination in 2011, she served her curacy at Christ Church Norris Green in Liverpool and have just served three years as Team Rector in five villages in Cambridgeshire.
Her hobbies include cruising, and spending time getting to know people, and she would love to learn how to ballroom dance. She hates gardening and sand!
Said Julie: “The other thing you should know is that I am passionate about telling folk about Jesus. I just want everyone to know the love he has for them and I will do my best to get that message across any way I can.
"What I don’t do however is preach the bible at people willy nilly! I just try to love others and show them by my actions that Jesus loves them too,” she added.
And once she’s settled in the rectory she hopes folk feel able to come and have a cup of tea with her as she tries get to know people.