There was a sense of celebration and anticipation in the air on the evening of July 3 in Badshot Lea. Carol Wilson-Barker, the long-awaited new team vicar, was installed in a service at St George's by the Bishop of Guildford, the Right Rev Christopher Hill. And although the service followed the required ceremonial format - which would have made it impressive enough - it was far more than just a ceremony.  The general consensus was that there was, as Carol herself says "a sense of joy".  There was also a sense of purpose.  In his address, Bishop Christopher talked about the "thousands of people out there and not in church tonight, who half believe and half doubt, who are asking questions about life and faith, about the world around us and the society we live in, looking for the meaning of life which quietly challenges the overconfident unbeliever".  He said that there were many such people in the parish and it was for Carol and the church to show them "the wounds of Christ's love".

The service was well-attended by both clergy and laity.  Not only did Bishop Christopher take part, so did the Archdeacon of Surrey, the Venerable Stuart Beake, along with the Rev Tim Rose, acting as Bishop's Chaplain.  Carol was also formally welcomed by the Mayors of Waverley (Maurice Byham) and Farnham (Carole Cockburn) and by the following: the Rev John Page; the St George's parish wardens Dudley Elsmore and  Martin Reed; Anne Young (deputy warden of Hale); Jo Napper (elder, Weybourne Baptist Church); the Rev John Edwards (deacon, Holy Family Catholic Church); Anna Sparrow (Hale Methodist Church); the Rev Brian Lotter (pastor, Bethel Baptist Church); Jan Weir (headteacher, Badshot Lea Infants School); Nora Warren (from Wednesday Friends); Joan Keeble (from Little Bees), and a representative from Badshot Lea Wives' Group.  The Rev Andrew Tuck (acting Rural Dean) and Nasir Virji gave a welcome from the Farnham deanery.

The thesis is the final module of Carol's theology degree from the South West Ministry Training Course, a non-residential three-year programme.  Carol decided to be ordained a few years ago, but she had had a sense of her vocation for a while before that.  "I met one of the first women deacons in the church of England in Truro when she was going to prepare me for confirmation and the thought popped into my head ‘That's a job I could do'," she remembers.  "But it goes back longer than that, perhaps to when I was about six.  My grandfather used to like to take me to church (he didn't usually go himself) and when we were there once the minister came up to him and said ‘You should come to church, you know,' and I remember thinking, ‘you won't get him in just by saying that', so I think it goes back to then."  But Carol confesses that she fought the calling.  "I tried lots of other things like running a shop, but in the end I gave in, at what might have seemed an inconvenient time.  Toby was about a year old and he wasn't sleeping well, but the sense that this was what I had to do became persistent."

The time since then hasn't necessarily been easy for Carol, but she says that, having made the decision, she "never doubted it at any stage, even when it seemed difficult, for instance when I was pregnant with Guy in my second year of training, and had to take him to courses, breastfeed him there and so on."  In all this she has had solid support from her husband Neil who has become a house-husband and "changed far more of Guy's nappies than I did".  And she is already finding the parish of Hale with Badshot Lea supportive.  "It is wonderful coming to a place that has been looking forward to having a new vicar.  There has been a real sense of warmth and willingness here."