After completing his training for ordination at Ripon College Cuddesdon in 2011, James Stickings knew he wanted to return to learning but had to bide his time.
“I enjoyed study and knew I wanted to go deeper,” he says. “But I needed to settle into my first incumbency at Oxford Diocese and get past Covid first.”
He has been rector of three churches in Southern Oxford diocese since 2016 and is completing the MA in Christian Spirituality programme.
His path to Sarum began with a Google search for part-time MA courses.
“I can remember reading all the module titles the Sarum website and it just made my brain fizz,” he recalls. “The breadth of modules and the interesting connections they make were a huge selling point. I would have loved to do them all.”
Having decided to embark on the programme, it was then a question of how to make it work with full-time ministry and a limited budget.
He found it helpful that the particulars of clergy schedules and demands would be understood, and that he could plan his time here for modules well in advance.
He was able to secure funding through the Bayne Benefaction, and the Sarum St Michael Trust.
“Those don’t cover everything but I was determined to find a way to do this programme,” he says.
James’s research interests are modern mysticism, and the nexus with social change. The Christian mystic Howard Thurman is a big inspiration, he says.
“I was initially a bit apprehensive about studying at the postgraduate level but there’s so much support and the feedback I get helps guide the work,” he says. “I might even do a PhD,” he says with a sheepish grin.
Studying on the MA isn’t about a direct professional interest for James. Rather, he says it opens his perspective, helping to broaden his horizons beyond daily ministry across a traditional group of churches.
“It’s great to be able to do a lot of reading on a topic that interests me and then have the structure and essays to direct and harness that reading and learning,” he says. “It gives a focus to my learning energy and the feedback is wonderful.”
Despite the considerable effort it takes to organise his schedule to come to Sarum to attend the modules, he wouldn’t trade it for the convenience of online learning. Being able to go to Evensong at Salisbury Cathedral at the end of the day also makes the experience here spiritually refreshing and the face-to-face teaching is enriching.
“We often get to spend break time with the tutors and the external contributors who are brought in for their expertise,” he says, beaming as he recalls a lengthy lunchtime chat with Professor Anthony Reddie during the Modern and Postmodern Perspectives module.
“After the module weeks, I leave tired but energised too by the stimulation of hard work that feels fruitful.”
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The Revd James Stickings is a student on the Christian Spirituality programme run by Sarum College.
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