Introducing Myself - Ed Bampton Acting Area Dean

Rev’d Dr Ed Bampton – Acting Area Dean in the Parish of All Saints Loughborough

As I will be Acting Area Dean, we thought it might be good for me to give you a bit of a bio of me, so you know at least a bit about me!

If you listen closely you may pick up my roots in Devon (you need to get me to say ‘tractor’), where I was brought up for six years on a small farm in the middle of nowhere on the Devon/Cornwall border. We then moved to Dorset, where my parents still live. My father suffers from Multiple Sclerosis, so my long-term interest has been on how the brain works – thus I went up to Oxford to study, culminating in my doctorate on how we might repair the brain, a subject that filled the rest of my scientific career. After three years in Cambridge, I moved to the Medical Research Council Toxicology Unit in Leicester, continuing my research and expanding into new areas, including work on cancer.

It was in Leicester that I met my lovely wife Claire, originally a Belfast girl, and we married in 2008 in Leicester Cathedral. Claire came to Leicester to study medicine, but after working as a doctor for a few years she found her calling elsewhere, working first for Christian Aid and now for the Diocese of Leicester. In 2009 our son Joshua was born and in 2012 our daughter Rebecca. As a family we enjoy good food (I love cooking), reading, music (listening and making), playing games and walking.

Over a number of years I found I cared more about people and relationships than test tubes and success. Underlying this was the constant challenge and growth of my faith, including a few special things such as Cursillo and Taizé. Some very clear ‘hints’ from God later and I gave up my successful scientific career to train for ordained ministry at The Queen’s Foundation Theological College in Birmingham. I had the joy of then serving my curacy in Shepshed and Oaks, and from there I moved to be Rector of the Benefice of Groby and Ratby, in time becoming first Assistant Area Dean and then Area Dean of Sparkenhoe East.

Amongst many other things, I am passionate about worship, building community as we serve those around us, and uncovering the gifts we all have that God calls us to use in his service. But most of all I am passionate about having fun! Knowing Jesus Christ in our lives is the greatest joy anyone can ever know and we need to let those around us know it so they too can experience the joy of faith in Jesus Christ. I will bring all I am to support you all in this time of interregnum as Acting Area Dean. I am here in a supportive and oversight capacity, so your first port of call remains your wonderful churchwardens and ministry team and they will pass on things to me as needed. But if you do want to contact me directly with any concerns (or even to share joys!) then my email is [email protected].

I look forward to journeying together with you all at this time and always to the glory of God.

Grace and peace to you all.

Ed.