My Ordination Story: Julie Clark
24 June 2026
A Piece of Golden Thread
"I delight in you, just as you are."
Julie Clark was twelve years old when she announced she was going to be a vicar. It was so long ago that women weren't yet ordained in the Church of England, as her mum recently pointed out. Looking back, Julie isn't sure it was God calling her in that moment but she could just see herself doing that.
It would take another thirty-seven years, and a long way round, before she finally did the thing her twelve-year-old self had set her heart on.
She grew up in a North East church, her mum deeply involved, with a huge Sunday school and a thriving youth group. Some of her clearest memories are of weekends away at Seahouses, walking the causeway to Holy Island, boat trips, late nights outdoors with a lovely group of friends.
She didn't have the words for it then, but she recognises now that Lindisfarne is a thin place, where the distance between heaven and earth feels slight.
Leaving, and the Baptism That Nearly Didn't Happen
At eighteen, Julie left the church, and she left decisively. Studying philosophy and religious studies, she found too many things that simply wouldn't fit together.
The irony was that she carried on with the very same subjects, became a religious studies teacher, and spent her days teaching other people about God. She could see that the faith of those around her, her mum especially, was real. She just got on with her career.
What brought her back was the baptism of her eldest daughter. The family lived on a modern housing estate with a single ecumenical church, and when the minister visited, Julie was honest about all her doubts. At the end of the conversation, he paused, and said yes, he would baptise her daughter.
She was stunned. She had realised, in that pause, that he might have said no. "That always stayed with me. If he'd said no, I wouldn't have come back to church." It was the hinge on which everything turned.
She got more involved, volunteered, did the Alpha course, still carrying her many questions. Then, one evening in a worship service, she had a profound sense of being told she was asking all the wrong questions, and that the only answer she needed was Jesus.
It was as though she understood grace for the first time, despite having taught it for years as something Christians believe. The having, the leaving, and the coming back have all shaped her ministry.
Running Out of Excuses
Julie found her home in the Methodist Church almost by accident. After ten years in that first congregation, she felt a strong sense of being moved on by God, and a job came up as a children and families worker.
It wasn't her plan, but it was God's, and she loved the inclusive, justice seeking character of the Methodist Church straight away.
Still, there was a niggle she kept ignoring: you could be a minister. Friends in both the Anglican and Methodist churches had been through the process, and each time there was that little voice, that could be me. Eventually she ran out of excuses.
She candidated, in part, to settle the question once and for all, expecting to be found out of her depth so she could put it aside for good. Instead, she was affirmed at every turn, and challenging as it has been, she now can't imagine doing anything else.
The Golden Thread
Ask Julie what grace feels like, and she tells you about a tiny chapel at St Beuno's. She had gone away for some time to herself, a healing and restorative experience she didn't know she needed, and sat in the little chapel with the lamps on, bathed in golden light.
She felt as though a piece of golden thread was being pressed into her hand, and with it a message. Take this. I've got you.
What she felt next was God's utter delight in her, total acceptance, all the baggage we carry as women, as mothers, simply not mattering. "It wasn't a case of I love you in spite of that. It was just, I delight in you, just as you are."
That is what she most wants others to know: that they are loved and valued exactly as they are. We respond to God's grace and it changes us, but we don't have to change first in order to receive it.
The Power of Presence
Two years into circuit ministry in Birmingham, Julie has learned to look for where God is already at work and to join in. As an introvert, she deliberately chose a student link church without much busyness, where she would have to sit with people, listen, and be vulnerable, rather than hide behind organising events.
What she wasn't prepared for, coming into probation, was how many vulnerable people she would meet, and the recognition that she cannot solve their problems. But she can be present, and so can the church, through warm spaces, breakfast clubs and social events where people are welcomed just as they are. The power of presence, she has found, is real.
God's Timing
For anyone wondering whether God might be calling them, Julie's word is simple. There is no perfect time, but explore it. "God will lead you wherever you're supposed to be, whether that is into ordained ministry or not. God will go before you in all of it and sustain you." Thirty-seven years on from a twelve-year-old's bold decision, she has learned to trust God's timing above her own.
Julie will be ordained at All Saints Church, Wellington on Sunday 28 June 2026.