In October just over a year ago, the parishioners of St Paul’s Anglican Church, Beaconsfield, Western Australia welcomed a new Priest-in-Charge – the Reverend Gemma Baseley.
Gemma was commissioned as a priest in the Anglican Church of Australia by Archbishop Kay Goldsworthy at St Paul’s on Monday 4 October 2021.
Gemma emigrated to Australia from Hartlepool, a world away from Freo on the northeast coast of England, in early September 2021. She then spent 4 weeks in quarantine before marrying her fiancé Craig on Thursday 30 September. After a short honeymoon, she finally joined with the parish to celebrate her commissioning at St Paul’s.
The Revd Gemma Baseley kindly agreed to meet with our editor, Michael Barker, to make this podcast where she discusses her transition from Hartlepool to Beaconsfield, her life before a life in the Church beckoned, the pathway that led her to the priesthood in the Anglican Church, her ministry at St Paul’s, and where she and a Church like St Paul’s fit in the modern, ever more secular world.
You can read the full story on Fremantle Shipping News here.