March 2025
Sarum College has appointed The Revd Sheena Williams as Tutor in Contextual Learning. In this role, she will work with students and the clergy supervising them as they encounter and reflect upon different settings — parishes, chaplaincies, and new and pioneering ecclesial communities — to broaden their experience of ministry.
“Sarum College Ministry recently received an excellent inspection report commending many aspects of our work, a recognition of the confidence neighbouring dioceses and the wider church have in our work,” says The Revd Canon Professor James Woodward, Principal of Sarum College.
“Recruitment for formation for authorised lay and ordained ministry continues to build and we were glad to have a strong field from which to appoint a new full-time ministry staff member.
“Sheena is an experienced and effective parish priest from the Diocese of Winchester who trained on this site at 19 The Close and studied postgraduate theology at Winchester University. We were impressed by her reflectiveness and insight together with her enthusiasm for the formation of a new generation of ministers. We look forward to learning alongside her and especially from her parochial experience. We are fortunate to have Sheena as a member of the team.”
“We are delighted that Sheena will be joining the Sarum College Ministry team,” says The Revd Paul Burden, Academic Dean. “Candidates for licensed lay and ordained ministries consistently find that the contextual nature of training here offers an important and transformational part of the formational learning. Sheena brings her experience in parish ministry, vocational discernment, and formation into this role to support and stretch our students as they prepare for their future roles.”
“I’m very much looking forward to joining a great team at an exciting time in the life of Sarum College,” says Sheena. “It has been a privilege to be involved in vocation and formation of lay and ordained ministers during my time in parish ministry. I am excited to develop work with those whom God is calling to licensed and ordained ministry and in a place which has been so important in my own formation and learning. “
Sheena is due to start this role 13 June 2025.
About The Revd Sheena Williams
Sheena studied Law and French Law at Aberdeen University and had a brief legal career as a solicitor in Glasgow before the family moved to Hampshire where she began to explore a call to ordained ministry.
She trained for ordained ministry at the Southern Theological Education and Training Scheme (STETS) in Sarum College and was ordained deacon in Winchester Cathedral 2010, and priest the year after.
Since then she has served in three parishes in Southampton and Eastleigh where she has also been part of the diocesan mission and ministry team as a tutor in reflective practice and has supervised a number of licensed lay ministers, ordinands and curates. She has served as Area Dean of Southampton, and as a Bishop’s Vocations Adviser for a number of years.
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