Meet Ian Chidlow – Associate Minister at St Cuthbert’s Cheadle

My name is Ian and I have been an Associate Minister in Cheadle Parish since 2023, although I’ve been working within the Parish since 2019. I’m currently based at St Cuthbert’s, having trained as a curate at St Mary’s for four years, and I absolutely love my job. But I didn’t always want to do this!

When I was younger, I wanted to be a rock star (who doesn’t?) and didn’t have much time for the bigger questions of life – who are we, why are we here, does God exist etc. I did attend Church with some friends, and would have said I believed Jesus was real. However, it wasn’t until I was 16 that I came to realise, on a very personal level, that the God I’d heard about every Sunday was there, and he was interested in my life.

This is something I still struggle to get my head around. Why would God be interested in me? But I believe he is, just as he is interested in you and your life as well.

Having come to a deeper faith at 16, I began to pay more attention at Church and to try to pick my Bible up and understand it a bit better. I believed that the stories within the Bible were true, and was especially struck by the gospel accounts that Jesus really did die and rise to life by God’s power. But more than that, what I read began to make sense of the world, or myself and of other people. As CS Lewis, the author of the amazing Chronicles of Narnia, wrote: “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

Who was I? What was the meaning and purpose of life? Was there anything else out there? Why did other people behave in the way they did – the good and the bad? How could a person be happy and fulfilled? Why did the world sometimes seem so dark? As Christianity ticked these questions off one by one, I began to see that this wasn’t just about a few encouraging Bible verses stuck together, on a fridge magnet or car bumper sticker. This was a wonderfully coherent, logical worldview which explained the world I lived in.

All this being the case, it was no longer possible to keep it at arm’s length and treat it as ‘something to do on a Sunday’ with my mates. If Jesus really had died and risen in order to do away with my sin and bring me to God (1 Peter 2:24), and if Christianity really did make sense of the world, then I had to pay attention. We may accept Jesus and his claims, or dismiss it all as nonsense. One thing we can’t do is stay on the fence forever.

What followed was a long and bumpy journey through University at Sheffield, studying Philosophy. I enjoyed it but came out of Uni wondering where my future lay.

Around that time (2011) I began to feel God poking me to consider ordained ministry. This happened through comments from friends, from the Vicar of the Church I grew up in, and through an increasing sense that I should ‘knock on that door’ and see what happened.

I began to explore the idea more, and went to be a trainee at a Church in Rock Ferry for a few years, to see what Church Ministry was like. During this time I met my wife Jodi, which is certainly a highlight as I look back! Whilst at Rock Ferry I approached the local Church of England Bishop to chat about my future, and we got the ball rolling.

After Rock Ferry I was told, by the Church of England, to go and get a ‘real job’ for a few years, to get some more life experience, so I worked for Mencap, which is a brilliant Charity that supports people with learning disabilities, along with their friends and families. When Jodi and I moved to Northwich, I left Mencap and worked as a carer for an organisation which provides home support for those who are bed-bound or need extra assistance around the house.

Around 2016, the Church of England decided I was ready to go and train for ordination, so we moved to London to study theology and pastoral care for three years. This was a wonderful time of our life. I was taught by fantastic lecturers – real experts in their fields – on a wide range of subjects such as the Biblical languages (Hebrew and Greek), counselling, biblical interpretation and philosophy.

Towards the end of my studies, we came to Cheadle to interview for a curacy (essentially a training post) at St Mary’s. Thankfully, it went well, and in September 2019 I started work in the Parish.

If you had told me, when I was a teenager, that I would be a Vicar when I grew up, I would have laughed in your face. But God had other ideas, and here we are! Jodi and I now have three children (7, 5 and 3 years old) and a small army of pets. We hope to be here in Cheadle Parish for a long time at St Cuthbert’s.

St Cuthbert’s is a wonderful Church full of incredibly kind people who don’t just meet on a Sunday – we share our lives together. I would encourage you to come along and say hello, especially if you think Church is boring or stuck in the past. We are neither, and we would love to meet you.