Elle Bird
Elle will be joining us as our curate (vicar with L-plates) in July or August 2024.
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Full name
Eleanor Sarah Bird, but please call me Elle – pronounced Ellie! Significant others Husband – Paul Daughter – Lucy Cat – Rajah, named after Princess Jasmine’s tiger, of course. Favourite subject at school (you don’t have to say RE) I loved history all the way through school, and drama too when I got to secondary school. Basically, people and their stories are what interest and excite me most. What did you want to be when you were growing up? A mum! I had the usual aims of ballerina and theatre performer too when I was very little, and a few years wondering if maybe I’d become a teacher – but since the age of three all I’ve ever really wanted to be was a mum. It took a long, prayer-fuelled and faith-filled journey to get there, but in the end I got to carry and give birth to our own precious miracle daughter, Lucy, in 2015 (short version of the story: some bodies are just too broken to make babies, BUT we know a God who is good at doing the impossible!) Can you tell us about your journey to vicar school? As a teenager I knew three things about myself: I loved God, I loved people and I loved theatre, and I wanted to find a way of combining them – so I went to drama school in London and joined a big New Wine church. This had not just a Youth Worker, but a Kids Worker too (very unusual in 2004) and I knew fairly quickly that being a Kids Pastor was what God was asking me to do with my degree. I finished drama school, moved into my first flat, married Paul, and started my first ministry job all within the space of six weeks when I was twenty-one. It was in my first Kids Pastor post that I was given the mandate: make sure our kids get the very best! Really quickly I realised that ‘the very best’ included having parents and older siblings who were passionate about Jesus and so I started to develop a heart for intergenerational ministry. This passion, to see churches function as family, has been my passion for over fifteen years. I’ve chased that passion with Jesus, and I think it’s because of my heart to see healthy church families grow that he asked me to go to vicar school, and be equipped for the next adventure he has for me and our family. Any hobbies? I love theatre. In the past I’ve performed as an actor and dancer, but I also loved opportunities to stage manage and direct productions. Now, I’m a happy stage mum to Lucy (who is following in my theatrical footsteps) and as a family we spend as much time as we can seeing theatre in as many different locations and forms. As a family we love exploring new places, holidays and camping. I can play the flute, and love to bake and cook as much as I can. Favourite woman in the Bible Mary Magdalene. What a redemption story she had! I find her love of Jesus so inspiring. Her moments with Jesus on Easter Sunday are my favourite in the New Testament. How amazing must it have been to hear your name called and instantly realise it is Jesus in front of you, risen from the dead. Favourite man in the Bible Moses. I love to read of how he walked with God. I am inspired by his honesty, his rawness and indignance (anger at unfairness), and how, even though majorly flawed and sinful, God still chose to move in and through him. His story also reminds me of the freedom God designed me to live in, and the freedom Jesus won for me on the cross. What question do you wish we’d asked? Where were you born? Answer: Hong Kong. Sadly, I can’t remember a thing because my parents moved back to England just before I was two, but I’ve been all over the Far East, and even fed wild elephants. |