Andrew White (clergyman) - Education and Call To The Priesthood

Education and Call To The Priesthood

He studied at St Thomas' Hospital, London and qualified as an Operating Department Practitioner in 1985. He worked in anaesthetics and was a member of the cardiac arrest team. He spent a short time in Derby and became an active member of the Elim Pentecostal church there. One day he realised that he had done everything he had set out to achieve and asked himself, "what next?", and decided to become a Church of England Priest. He studied theology, training for the priesthood at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, where he decided to learn about Judaism and Islam. He also spent time at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was ordained in 1990, and became a curate at St Mark's, Battersea Rise in the Diocese of Southwark. During his time at Southwark White had his first appearance on TV when was interviewed on the street by a member of the That's Life! team. He first saw his wife from the pulpit when she was in the congregation, and when six weeks later he asked her to marry him, she initially said "maybe". He later became a vicar of the Church of the Ascension, Balham Hill in the same diocese.

In 1997 – his final year as vicar of the Church of the Ascension – he was a Wandsworth Borough Councillor and served as Deputy Chairman of Social Services.