Steve Midgley
Steve, tell us a bit about your connections with Cambridge.
I've spent two periods of my life here. The first was as an undergraduate medical student in the early 80s. Then in 2001, I returned to work as a church minister and for the past 18 months have been vicar of Christ Church near the Grafton Centre.
Obviously a significant shift took place at some point. Why did you move from medicine to ministry?
Much to my surprise, I became a Christian as a student at Jesus college. I'd arrived with no clear views about God but discovered others who took him very seriously indeed. I debated long and hard and they persuaded me to read an account of Jesus' life. Looking back, I think reading that had the biggest impact. It was clear to me that Jesus was different to any character I had ever read about before. When the moment came for a decision I remember being fearful. But what I had read persuaded me that Christ was a man I could trust with my life. When I prayed that prayer, I had no idea I would end up back in Cambridge as vicar of a church a few hundred yards up the road.
So what happened next?
The next three years were spent in London finishing my medical studies and once I'd qualified I began a GP training scheme in South West London. At the end of three years I wasn't persuaded I wanted to be a GP so joined a training scheme in psychiatry. I worked in that field for about five years, mostly in psychotherapy and it was during that time that the idea of going into full time paid Christian work began to crystallise.
Was that because you didn't much like psychiatry?
Not at all. It was fascinating work and very stimulating in lots of ways. There's much about it that I still miss.
So why leave?
It sounds a bit glib, but ultimately it was driven by my conviction about what mattered most. As a psychiatrist I could, at best, offer short term solutions to problems. Often even that wasn't possible. As my involvement in the leadership at my local church grew, I realised I had a choice. When the opportunity to shift into full time church work emerged, Beth and I decided that was what we should do.
Tell us a bit more about your family.
Beth trained as a social worker and we married soon after I qualified as a doctor. We have three children aged 13, 12 and 9. Medicine and ministry have meant we've moved quite a bit over the years so we are glad to have finally settled in Cambridge.
How do you use your spare time?
I still manage a bit of cricket and this past summer began to row again after a break of twenty five years. It was good to discover that, like riding a bike, you don't entirely forget how to do it.
Are you looking forward to the Main Event in February?
I am always glad to have the chance to talk about Jesus and about the Christian faith. The three talks will be a challenge. In the first one we are going to be asking whether we really can know anything for certain about God and if so how? The idea of a God who speaks to us can be a bit confusing, but it's vital to any understanding of the Christian faith. If God can't speak, we can't know. The second talk is a tougher prospect. In my experience there is a vague expectation that if there is a God, then he must be a genial grandfather god who, as CS Lewis put it 'just wants everyone to have fun'. That God might be less than delighted with us, or might even judge us, are uncomfortable ideas for most people. But unless we grapple with them the heart of the gospel and the whole idea of forgiveness is evacuated of meaning. The third talk will deal with the issue of relativism: what we do with exclusive claims to truth when they are so intellectually and culturally unfashionable. It's a provocative title: 'Is God just for Christians?', but the whole idea of exclusive truth claims is pretty controversial today. It will be good to try and tackle it.