My Ordination Story: Rebecca Marshall
26 June 2026
From Classroom to Congregation
"I couldn't ignore God's call on my life, no matter how much I loved what I was doing."
Rebecca began her first appointment amongst the people who had known her since she was three years old.
She was brought up in the Methodist Church in the very circuit she now serves as a probationer presbyter, which makes for an unusual first stationing. To be sent back to your home circuit, surrounded by the people who shaped your spiritual journey from earliest childhood, is rare and it has provided a particular journey, for the congregations as much as for Rebecca.
The people who were once her Girls' Brigade officers and youth club leaders have had to see her differently. She is no longer the child they remember, and together they have walked the road that turned that child into their presbyter.
She does not take it for granted. One of her two churches she knew extremely well; the other she barely knew at all. "I've never felt so loved and so blessed by churches in all my time in Methodism," she says. The love and respect she feels from them, and hopes she returns, has been deeply fulfilling.
More Than a Teacher
These two years have taught Rebecca that God is far bigger than anything she could have imagined. Standing in front of a congregation, she has realised that every person before her is on their own spiritual journey, and that God is just as present with each of them as with her. "Just as he's working in my life, he's working in everybody else's life as well."
She has learned something about herself, too. Rebecca spent 24 years in education before leaving for presbyteral ministry. But ministry has shown her that her gifts reach further than she realised. She is more than the teacher she had been for over two decades, and God has given her the ability to connect with people of every age and background, in ways she never thought possible when her world was a secondary school.
Accompanying People
The path began in 2016, when Rebecca felt called to be a local preacher. She loved it almost at once, loved sharing the word and speaking about her faith. But as that journey went on, she noticed something missing. In teaching she had loved walking a long road with people, meeting a new eleven-year-old and staying with them through to sixth form, then watching them step out into the world.
She wanted that kind of journey spiritually too, to accompany people over time and see how the Lord was at work in their lives. Local preaching, wonderful as it was, didn't offer that sustained companionship. "When you're a teacher, you're sharing the passion that is your subject. When you're a preacher, you're sharing the passion that is your relationship with Jesus."
There was no single dramatic moment, only a growing realisation. During COVID, with a little more freedom from the classroom and preaching over Zoom, the sense settled in her that God was calling her to something different. He was asking her to use everything she had developed as a teacher and bring it into presbyteral ministry. The pull towards the sacramental table, towards gathering people together in that way, left her in no doubt about the path.
Bringing the Kingdom Together
Ask where she has seen God at work in Plymouth, and Rebecca lights up about working ecumenically. Her churches have strong relationships with Anglican, United Reformed and Independent congregations nearby. Together they take a slot on the stage at the local shopping centre at Christmas and Easter, sharing their faith with the community.
Rebecca has been the Angel Gabriel and a shepherd, standing alongside colleagues from every denomination, and she has helped lead a service on gender-based violence with Anglican and Catholic colleagues. "We may be different denominations, but we all want the same thing. We all want to bring the Kingdom to our local communities."
Held Every Inch of the Way
Rebecca's ordination at Shrewsbury Abbey carries a particular weight of gratitude. It is a long way from Plymouth, too far for most of her congregations to travel, so both her churches will stream the morning connexion service, then gather in the afternoon with tea and cakes to watch her ordination as a circuit celebration.
A few people are making the journey in person, among them her husband Ian, her daughter Erin, her parents and her sister. About eighteen months ago Ian was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis, a life-limiting illness, and they have prayed that he would still be there for her ordination. He will be. "I just have to thank God."
Her word to anyone wondering whether God might be calling them, especially those later in a career they love, is simple. Don't let age hold you back, and don't be scared.
She felt the call to ordination in her mid-40s, and leaving a job and students she adored after 24 years was hard. But she couldn't ignore God's call. "God holds you every inch and every centimetre and every situation you go to. If you are where God wants you to be, God will enable it to happen." She loved being a teacher and never thought she would leave. “But being a minister,” she says,” is so much more.”
Rebecca will be ordained at Shrewsbury Abbey on 28th June 2026.