Magdalen Smith

Magdalen Smith was born in 1969 and grew up in Truro, Cornwall where her father was one of the cathedral clergy and Director of Ordinands. After school, she studied History of Art at Warwick University. On graduating, she realized she did not want to spend a lifetime with material objects and undertook three years of exploration, spending time in London, South Africa and Birmingham. After some discernment, she trained for ordination at the Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham and took a postgraduate degree in Theology.

Magdalen was one of the second wave of women to be ordained in the 1990s which then took her from Liverpool, Birmingham and Cheshire briefly to London, and she has now returned to a city where she met her husband, married and where her children (now in their early twenties) were born.

Magdalen has been a Spiritual Director/Guide for over 20 years which is a ministry she loves and feel a great calling to do, enjoying accompanying others in their own search for God. With this she has also led many retreats and Quiet Days around the country, often using the visual arts which have infused the work she participates in. She is now building on this by doing a year’s course in Pastoral Supervision to help support the work and lives of fellow clergy.

Magdalen has travelled widely and enjoys the stimulation of other cultures and is especially interested in “all-things African”. She continues to believe that living the life of a priest can be an interest and inspiration for others simply because it is about encouraging human beings to live and to love well through a journey of faith. She is a creative person and loves anything that enriches the soul—art, film, drama, poetry, good food and wine, the natural world and has recently surprised herself at how much she enjoys the gym! Her passion is connecting faith and life in grounded as well as profound ways.