Rector's Profile

Message from our Rector

My wife Shailaja and I come from Andhra Pradesh, South India.  We met when we were helping at a student movement (Union of Evangelical Students of India) as volunteers and got married in 1987. Both of us trained theologically and worked in the same organisation for 12 years as full time ministers.  Our affinity to the church led us to join the Church of South India in the Diocese of Nandyal.  After my Masters in Biblical Studies, I was ordained as a priest in the Diocese in 2001.  Shaila and I taught as lecturers in Leonard Theological College, Jabalpur, North India for 5 years, training the ordinands. 

I came to Oxford in 2004 to do my Ph.D.  My family joined me in 2005 and I finished my research by 2009.  While doing my research in Oxford I worked as a House for Duty Priest in the Ray Valley Benefice in the Diocese of Oxford, whilst our children completed their secondary schooling.   We then moved to the Borderlink Parishes, Hereford where I have worked as Rector for 7 years.   My wife Shailaja has worked in various roles. She trained as a dispenser and worked in a pharmacy.  For a few years, she has been volunteering in the chaplaincy department of Hereford Hospital and recently completed her Reader Training and was licensed as a Reader for the Borderlink Parishes in September 2016.