About Me...
My name is Rory Dalgliesh.
I am a South African born Methodist Minister currently working as Methodist Chaplain to the University of York, England, and as Methodist Minister to Heslington Church, an ecumenical church alongside the university campus. I have been in this post since 2006, and will be here until 2016 at least.
On the way here I grew up outside Johannesburg with my mother and sister. My father was never reliably around, and amongst other things struggled with alcohol most of his adult life. He died in 1988. The rest of my small family remain in South Africa. Others near and far have been "family" to me over the years in ways and at times that have been crucial, healing and helpful.
I had a few self-defeating stabs at being what I thought was "Christian" as an early to mid-teenager, and found a meaningful faith in my late teens and early 20's, largely in the questions that arose in the light of my father's life, and death.
I studied engineering before moving into ministry, and was ordained in 2000. I majored in Systematic Theology and Theological Ethics. I wanted the tools to frame a coherent faith, and then apply that to my daily life, work and relationships with awareness and a growing consistency, and help others do the same. The framing, the awareness and the growth are ongoing journeys. I taught Theological Ethics part-time for the last 4 years I was in South Africa at the Methodist Church's ecumenical college.
South Africa's story, my place in it as a privileged white boy and young man, and it's transition to democracy, influenced me enormously. As I became more and more aware of the state of the country I was growing up in I had to make decisions about many forms of violence and their place in my life, and their place in a shared future. I refused conscription into the military in 1990. I attended TRC hearings in 1996, and for the next 5 years facilitated and took part in local initiatives to build relationship across the many boundaries put in place by years of separation and inequality. I met and was influenced by a great many people who had suffered and stood firm in the journey to a post-apartheid South Africa, from Archbishops to the illiterate mothers of lost sons and daughters.
Personal data requests in the UK never gives the option of "White African". I am "White Other".
I am an African at heart, and always will be.
Personal data requests in the UK never gives the option of "White African". I am "White Other".
I am an African at heart, and always will be.
I love my work. It is vast and varied, deeply silly sometimes and deeply serious often. My job is to have time, and I do all that I can to be unhurried.
It is work predicated on questions far more than answers.
I work with people of all faiths and none across a large, progressive and fascinating institution.
I work happily, creatively and gratefully with Anglican and Roman Catholic colleagues within the chaplaincy team, and with representatives of other faith groups on campus and in the wider community.
I am an enthusiastic and committed triathlete, with some major goals for 2012.
I love working with my hands and making things. I do a fair amount of woodwork, most recently a garden treehouse from reclaimed timber. I love practical problem solving, and tinkering with just about anything mechanical that has stopped behaving as it should.
Once or twice a year I spend time in Scotland wild camping and mountaineering with a trusted friend. In 2010 I walked the Camino de Santiago, 550 miles across Spain. An experience of incredible simplicity.
It is work predicated on questions far more than answers.
I work with people of all faiths and none across a large, progressive and fascinating institution.
I work happily, creatively and gratefully with Anglican and Roman Catholic colleagues within the chaplaincy team, and with representatives of other faith groups on campus and in the wider community.
I am an enthusiastic and committed triathlete, with some major goals for 2012.
I love working with my hands and making things. I do a fair amount of woodwork, most recently a garden treehouse from reclaimed timber. I love practical problem solving, and tinkering with just about anything mechanical that has stopped behaving as it should.
Once or twice a year I spend time in Scotland wild camping and mountaineering with a trusted friend. In 2010 I walked the Camino de Santiago, 550 miles across Spain. An experience of incredible simplicity.
I have two young children, a son and a daughter, who are a joy and a delight almost all of time. They, more than anyone else, help me know where attention is needed in my inner life.
I am divorced, and that skin is mostly shed now.
I am in a healthy and life-giving relationship that is piecing me together in ways old and new.
My ministry is personal. I am not afraid of bringing my unfinished self into all that I do, and the way that I do it.
Religious professionalism does not, in my opinion, fit ministry well. Healthy self-awareness, a willingness to risk and a humbly lived humanity offer far more than being "in role" ever could. Others may disagree. I make no claim to be right or better in anything at all.
I'm glad to know that I still have a lot to learn and grow into.
Everything on this site is offered in that spirit.
Rory
