Mark Philps

Mark Philps grew up with his mother and younger brother in Cornwall, where they had moved from London after his father died when he was four years old. Mark went away to boarding schools, and came to faith as an undergraduate at Oxford.

Part of his experience of conversion was a sense of call to ordained ministry, which for a time he dismissed as something anybody who had come to faith as an adult would naturally feel called to. Being doubtful about exploring ordination he went on to London University to study linguistics, in which he had become interested as part of my Russian studies at Oxford.

The sense of call to ordination did not go away, so Mark decided to find a job as part of gaining life experience before taking any positive steps towards testing a vocation. He spent two years as a Russian Language Monitor at the BBC in Caversham. During this time he married Caroline, whom he had met in London.

Towards the end of Mark’s time at the BBC he was accepted for training for ministry and subsequently moved to Nottingham, where they lived for three years. His first appointment was in East London, where their first child was born with Down’s Syndrome. Caroline wrote two books about our experience (Elizabeth Joy & Mummy, why have I got Down’s Syndrome?, both published by Lion).

During his time in ministry, Mark continued to read theology and to nurture some of the ideas that are explored in Kingdom Come. After spending 35 years and four different parishes, Mark has retired and now divides his time between writing, helping out at the local parish church, and walking the family dog.