Vicar’s food for thought

When he's not acting as chaplain for Bradford City's players and staff or taking the Gospel to a local gym, he's rustling up food at his Saltaire bistro.

Just moments into our conversation, I discover Andy is regularly rubbing shoulders with well-known footballers and celebrities.

As chaplain at Valley Parade, he often chats to the players about their lives. Another familiar face he met through his Christian life happens to be an Emmerdale star.

He's invited Tom Lister, alias businessman Carl King in the popular Yorkshire soap, to do a stint of celebrity cheffing' at the café-bistro Andy opened six months ago in the village of Saltaire.

The café is appropriately-named Vicars and lies at the heart of the village. The business is a collaborative venture between Andy, his wife Alison, their friends the Rev Jimmy Hinton and his wife Sarah, and Andy's parents.

So how did Andy go from preaching from the pulpit to owning his own eaterie, and what do the two professions have in common?

"I originally trained as a social worker. I have worked overseas in Pakistan for many years and that kind of led to us being here," he explains.

"When I was ordained five years ago I wanted to be near a city and where there was a predominantly Asian community."

Life in Dorset, where Andy grew up, was a big contrast to the city life he's living now, but for Andy and the many more who are called into the Church, it's rewarding work.

"I came to the faith when I was 17," he says. "That led to me becoming a social worker but then I changed from wanting to make as much money as I could to trying to help people in some way or another."

Working with predominantly HIV and AIDS sufferers in Pakistan brought home to Andy the extent of human suffering out in the world, and how working in that environment can make a difference.

He began working with churches, focusing on regeneration around the country. His arrival at St Augustine's Church in Undercliffe as curate three years ago brought him to Bradford and Saltaire where he has since set up a home and subsequently a business, enabling him to continue his church work in a rather unconventional way.

The sight of many former churches transformed into modern residential complexes is a sad reflection that churches are no longer seeing as many bottoms on pews.

There has been criticism that churches have failed to move swiftly enough with the times. For many, the realisation of meeting the needs of a more modern, mobile population has come too late.

While some churches carry on in traditional ways, others are finding alternative methods, providing a less formal environment to worship than the confines of a church.

"When I finished my curacy I went to the Bishop and he asked what I wanted to do," says Andy. "I didn't really want to spend my time with people who already went to church. I want to spend my time with people who don't want to go to church."

Becoming a mission priest in Bradford, Andy started to look at unconventional ways of introducing people to the Church.

"I thought about the things we already do and how we can use them to get people to explore faith," he says.

"I became the chaplain to Bradford City because someone was stepping down and we were asked if anybody knew anything about football. I played - my claim to fame is that I once got paid to play football but I was paid in rupees when I was out in Pakistan!"

Andy tells me how he chats with City players about their on-pitch aspirations. He hopes that in some way he can enable them to reach their full potential in life, not just as players, but as people.

Exploring the connection between sport and spirituality prompted Andy to host life courses at his local gym.

Initially he carried out a survey among members of the Marriott Hollins Hall Hotel in Baildon and found sufficient interest to set up lifestyle courses. The programmes involves him talking to people about their lives and aspirations and what they want out of life.

He describe his church as "somewhere for people who do not go to church."

"We are convinced you can be a person who can be a Christian but you don't necessarily need to do it in a way that it's done in a funny building," he says.

Andy's other outlet for introducing people to the faith is a little more relaxed - the collaborative café-bistro in Victoria Road, Saltaire, which opened in June.

I sense that for him it's also an ambition he was eager to achieve and one which isn't too remote from religion.

"Somebody said, You are always telling people to follow their dreams - why don't you do the same?' so we bought this," he says. "I'm not a qualified chef but I like to cook simple food. You can all sit together. I think people share a lot more of themselves over food.

"I wouldn't say people in their hundreds have suddenly found the church but we have got people coming to the spiritual things we do which is great because they wouldn't typically have gone to church.

"I think it's in everybody and that is what I think the scriptures teach us. We just have to find it sometimes."

As well as his church work, Andy has his own flock to look after - his wife and their children Sophie, 17, Josh, 16, Sam, eight, and four-year-old Bethany.

"It's a bit exhausting but it is satisfying. At times I think it would be nice to do a nine-to-five job and go home and put your feet up, but then again I have a low boredom threshold!" he laughs.