Diocese welcomes new director of ministry

The diocese has welcomed Rev’d Dr Jane de Gay as our new Diocesan Director of Ministry.

In her new role, Jane will oversee and support individuals exploring their calling—from initial enquiry through selection, training, and curacy—working closely both with clergy and lay ministers across the diocese to nurture and develop ministry.

Jane, who is from Swansea and has been connected with St Peter’s in Cockett since her childhood, is a leading expert in the life and works of Virginia Woolf, having combined a dual calling.

“I was around the age of 17, back in Swansea, and I was on track to go off to university and study English. That’s what I really wanted to do,” Jane said. “But then there was a sermon from a new curate, about how he had felt torn between two callings, and I had a sense that God did want me to work in the Church.

“I pursued my academic career, I got my degree and went on to do a PhD, but from my late 20s people were asking if I’d thought of being ordained. I kept saying no, but it was only when I got a position as lecturer at Leeds Trinity University, and people in Leeds were asking the same question, that I thought I needed to explore it.”

Jane was ordained deacon in 2008 and priest in 2009 and for the past 17 years she combined full-time work as an academic (Lecturer then Professor) with her ministry, including parish work at St Martin’s, Potternewton, where she engaged with Leeds’s Caribbean community and fostered ecumenical collaboration across the city.

Jane’s new role not only brings her back to her home diocese, but also allows her to continue her decades-long work in helping people pursue their vocation.

“For the past couple of years, I’ve felt God is calling me to do something different,” she said. “I was at Leeds Minster – my role there was Associate Priest and Lecturer – but I’ve also always been involved in vocations. From very early on I’ve been involved in running a fellowship of vocations and as a diocesan assessor and also a reviewer of colleges and courses in the Church of England.”

As Director of Ministry, Jane – who will also serve as a priest in the Brecon and Epynt Ministry Area - will guide vocation discernment, supporting candidates through every stage from inquiry and selection to theological training and curacy.

“I always knew that, at some point, God was going to call me to full-time ministry and I also had a hankering to come back to Wales, so this is a calling to give something back to the Church that nurtured me in the first place,” Jane said.