Dear Friends,
Greetings to you all!
Christmas is coming and it’s time when the Church gets quite busy. I wish you all the best for your planning, preparation and pray that you would be able to bring many souls to Christ rather than just celebrating the festivity. It is about the sharing the Good News which is for the people of the world.
It’s over three months now since I joined the Ealing Trinity Circuit in September 2021. I hardly get chance to see the churches other than my pastoral section where I have the pastoral oversight of Acton Hill, Hanwell and King’s Hall, Southall which is up and running at the hall of Hambrough Primary School for last nine years.
It would be good for you to know about me through this letter: I was born and brought up in a place called Gaya in the state of Bihar in India which is quite popular worldwide for Buddhism where Buddha (Sidhartha) got enlightenment under a Banyan Tree. It’s also a renowned place for Hindu pilgrimage where millions of Hindu devotees come to offer their prayer with a ritual called ‘Pind-Daan’ (praying for their ancestors).
Most of my studies I did in India, like - BA in History, English and Political Science before coming to Church ministry, and Bachelor of Divinity (BD) in Theology which is helping me in my ministry. I served five years in Diocese of Patna and seven years in Diocese of Lucknow in India. It gave me quite wide learning of working with various churches and people of interfaith.
I moved from India to the UK in July 2004 as a World Church Partner. A link between Church of North India and British Methodist Church and stationed at Swindon (Wiltshire), one of the oldest ecumenical partnerships in England between the Church of England, URC and Methodist in ‘Swindon and Marlborough Circuit’ (currently known as ‘East Wiltshire Circuit’) under Bristol District on a contract of five years. After completion of my contract and with the permission from my home Church in India, I was received into Methodist Connexion at the Methodist Conference held at Wolverhampton in 2009. I moved to Bristol in the ‘Bristol & South Gloucestershire Circuit’ as an Authorised Minister in 2009 and served there for six years where I also served for three years as an Assistant Synod Secretary and as a member of the District Council.
In 2015 I was stationed at Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury District at Stourbridge in Dudley, West Midlands which is also known as Black Country. There I was assigned the role of superintendent for a year after the death of our dear superintendent. In my fifth year at Stourbridge, I opted for curtailment because after my wife finished her theological training from Queen’s Foundation Birmingham she was looking for stationing to complete her period of probation. So she got stationed at Bromsgrove & Redditch Circuit, and I got the neighbouring circuit, ‘Oldbury and West Birmingham Circuit in the Birmingham District. After serving there for nearly two years of serving only, I was picked up by the connexion to respond to the call to serve an Asian Church (Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi speaking Church) in Southall. That’s how I came to Ealing Trinity Circuit and discerned my calling from September 2021 in this circuit. I believe that it’s God who leads us to do his ministry. However, I have a passion to preach the Gospel and working along the people in the community. So, I am here with you all to give all glory and honour to God and be blessed.
Every blessing!
Rev Ajay Singh
Methodist Minister, Ealing Trinity Circuit