Discovering Christianity
My Faith: Ian Marples
“Come, follow me” *
Ian Marples went to church as a child,
encouraged to attend Sunday School by his parents. He usually
attended once each
month but stopped when he was about 11. His journey back to
church some 50 years later began when a family member living
abroad died unexpectedly. As he was buried abroad, the family
organised a thanksgiving service in Dronfield, but due to a
communication breakdown, Ian did not attend. He was angry and
disappointed when he discovered that he had missed this important
event. He decided to go for walk to ‘cool off’ and
ended up walking to the church, St John the Baptist, in Dronfield.
Ian sat alone in the church, familiar to him from childhood
and subsequent weddings, funerals and baptisms. He noticed
a plaque on the wall listing vicars of the church from the
last 800 years. One name stood out - the vicar he knew from
his childhood and who had married his parents.
Ian said, “Sitting there, I remembered a lot about being
in this church. It was quite an experience, the warmth of feeling
that came over me. Even though the church had only been a brief
part in my life, as I sat there I felt a great sense of belonging.
So I decided to go to church the following Sunday and I went
to Evening Prayer. I didn’t really have a clue what was
going on but I still enjoyed it and felt I wanted to go back
again. The more I went, the more committed I got to attending
each week.”
One Sunday Ian was particularly struck
by a sermon. It spoke of Jesus choosing his disciples for
the first time and simply
asking them to stop what they were doing and follow him*. “I
realised that in a small way, this was what I was doing. I
was simply following my instincts. I didn’t need to completely
understand it, but just go with what my instincts were telling
me and it felt right,” said Ian.
He was invited to attend Alpha and
Emmaus courses to help him learn more about the Christian
faith and said he enjoyed
both, but the Alpha course in particular had “helped
him to understand basic things in words of one syllable!”
Ian was confirmed in 2006 and helps out in church in various
ways. Since his parents recently died and Ian is not married,
he can feel very much on his own, but the church offers friendship
and a route to a relationship with God he had not known before.
“Before I started coming to church, I didn’t really
know what I believed.” said Ian. “I would sit on
the fence and have no problem with what others believed in.
This was a comfortable place for me, not committing to anything.
But things have changed. The more I learn and the more involved
I get, the more my commitment grows.”
*Matthew 4: v 18-22
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