Earlier this month, Bishop Christopher and the staff at Bishop's House welcomed two new interns, Matthew Murphy and Helen Walker. Below, Matthew and Helen share a little about themselves.
Matthew Murphy
"I’ve just spent four years reading history at undergraduate and postgraduate level at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where I was also Organ Scholar. The worlds of history and music, I found, very naturally coalesced in my interest for all things church-related – although my experience of the Church of England has, thus far, primarily been through the delights of Choral Evensong in my small college chapel, or buried in the tomes of early modern church history - far too self-indulgent, I think! So I am really looking forward to engaging with Bishop Christopher’s very wide portfolio of interests and responsibilities, and seeing the Church in all its breadth and diversity. My formation as a Christian was through my upbringing in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, which is very like Coventry in having forged a path of peace and reconciliation in the wake of tragedy.
When not confined to the organ loft, I enjoy the arts in many other forms, reading about politics and current affairs, and pursuing my longstanding interest in aviation and railways."
Helen Walker
"I was born in London but have spent the last ten years living in Liverpool before going on to study History at Clare College Cambridge as an undergraduate. There I focused on early Reformation history, with a special interest in the development of the Anglican church Ireland including a dissertation on the Cathedral’s in Dublin between 1534 and 1536. As such I am excited to see how the role of the church liturgical and socially has both stayed the same and changed through the work I will be doing in Coventry. In my spare time I enjoy reading historical murder mysteries and mysteries from the golden era of crime writing and knitting."