Revd Kenneth Padley   Anglican Chaplain to Bangor University Warden of Church Hostel

Born in 1978, Kenneth attended Grange Primary (1982-90) and Bishop Gore Comprehensive Schools (1990-97) in Swansea. Among other childhood activities he spent many happy years as a Scout. He went to Exeter College Oxford in 1997 where he graduated with a BA in Modern History in 2000. ‘Modern’ History in Oxford begins - perhaps predictably - in AD400; Kenneth focussed on the Reformation and Renaissance.

Kenneth was baptised (1979) and confirmed (1989) in the parish of Llwynderw, Swansea, where he successively enjoyed Sunday School, altar serving, and Sacristan duties. Discerning a vocation to ordination, he served as Chapel Clerk at Exeter College and afterwards as Lay Assistant (general dogsbody) at St Barnabas Dulwich (2000-01) where he learnt much from a vibrant and growing all-age parish. Selected for ordination in 2001, he studied at Cuddesdon Theological College near Oxford for a BA in Theology (2003) and a Master of Studies (MSt) in Ecclesiastical History (2004). At Cuddesdon he also revelled in the chores of Bar Steward, Governor, and Entertainments Officer. Between 2004 and 2007 he served as Assistant Curate in the Parish of Central Swansea., a city centre and inner city parish of five churches. He was mainly based at St Mary’s in the city centre. His focuses included setting up a Schools Programme which ran bilingual courses for primary and secondary aged students working in art, history and R.S., writing a new history and guidebook for that church, looking after St Mary’s during a six month interregnum, and acting as Chaplain to Swansea Sea Cadet Unit.

Through his studies Kenneth has come to appreciate the beauties and complexities of historic Anglicanism. He thinks that - despite popular misapprehensions - little of that belief in the God who creates, redeems, and reveals has been modified by recent developments in non-theological disciplines; he seeks to present that timeless faith afresh in an ever-changing world.

When not flapping around on Church business or examining the peccadilloes of obscure seventeenth century churchmen, Kenneth loves cinema, theatre, reading, and music (jazz and heavy metal excepted!) He will happily watch and (less successfully) play most sports. He maintains connections with Exeter College as his year group rep for the Development Office, and has done the student travel thing, visiting many sites around Europe and South America.

Publications

·          Jointly written with Jonathan Padley: ‘‘‘From mirrored truth the likeness of the True”: Echoes and Reflections of Jesus Christ in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth’, English (2009), 1-23

·          ‘Early Anglican Ecclesiology and Contemporary Ecumenism’, International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church 9.1 (February 2009) 3-16

·          ‘Rendering unto Caesar in the Age of Revolution: William Sherlock and William of Orange’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History 59.4 (October 2008), 680-696

·          Our Ladye Church of Swanesey: A History of St Mary’s (Swansea: Friends of Swansea St Mary, 2007) [76 pages]

·          Editor of: There the Heaven Espy: a Guide to Swansea St Mary by those who Worship in it (Swansea: Friends of Swansea St Mary, 2007) [32 pages]

·          Jointly written with Jonathan Padley: ‘A Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven: His Dark Materials, Inverted Theology, and the end of Philip Pullman’s Authority’, Children’s Literature in Education 37.4 (December 2006), 325-334

·          ‘Revising Early Modern Exeter’, Exeter College Association Register (Oxford, 2000), 38-46