Peter Banks at the Congress of the European Liberal Youth in Oslo, Norway, in 2022 and at his job as a pastoral assistant in 2023.
Peter Banks
Peter Banks turned in a career in politics for life in a small church.
He says he had considered the idea ludicrous as someone who’s gay and used to be an atheist.
He gets a stipend of $740 a month, and the church provides him with lodging.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Peter Banks, a 23-year-old international-studies graduate in Cambridge, England, who turned in a career in politics for life in a small church. Insider has verified Banks’ employment and education details. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
I’ve spent most of the past year working for an Anglican church as a pastoral assistant. It’s the first step in the very lengthy process of trying to become an ordained priest.
I’ve been told it’s an unusual path for someone so young. And it was also a big shift for someone who was living abroad in the Hague, who’s openly gay, and who was heavily invested in a different career. Here’s why I did it.
I was initially set on a career in international politics
Banks debating at the conference of the UK’s Liberal Democratic Party in 2019.
Peter Banks
I worked for the Liberal Democratic Party in the UK and the D66 party in the Netherlands.
Though I come from a very small village near Winchester in the south of England, I moved to the Hague in the Netherlands to get a bachelor’s degree in international studies — and that was where I first started seriously going to church, mostly because I needed to speak to other Brits about the practicalities of living in the Netherlands.
Around 2019, the chaplain of my church in the Netherlands off-handedly asked if I had ever considered becoming ordained.
I thought it was completely ludicrous, as someone who used to be quite atheist as a teen, who’s gay, and who’d been preparing for an entirely different career. Nonetheless, the seed was sown and I basically couldn’t get it out of my head.
I started speaking to a few more people and there came a moment — when I was moving back to the UK due to Brexit — when I realized, if there was ever a time, this was it.
Though the job pays little, I love my work as a pastoral assistant
Banks on his way to leading the Procession for Ascension for the University of Cambridge’s Trinity College in 2023.
Peter Banks
When I moved back home in November, I started looking at churches I could work at. That’s when I emailed Little St. Mary’s in Cambridge, which asked me down for an interview in December.
By January, I’d started working there as a pastoral assistant.
Though it hasn’t been the easiest time — I get a stipend of 600 pounds a month, or about $740 — I don’t regret it one bit.
Though I make far less than many others would, it’s enough to make do because the church provides lodging. As a result, I only really have to pay for food and going out.
If I continued on this path, I wouldn’t say my finances and lifestyle would be monastic. Basically, a life revolving around church and prayer doesn’t pay. Most priests have lodging for as long as they are in active service of the church, which obviously makes retirement a fainting prospect for many clergy.
Here’s what a typical day in my life looks like: mass, morning prayer, staff meetings, sometimes meeting a member of the congregation to provide communion at home, writing a sermon, and leading an evening prayer.
From day to day, there are minor changes, like doing home visits or running a choir, but overall I love that it’s a routine that probably hasn’t changed much for more than a thousand years.
I think there are a lot of misconceptions about people who work for the church. We’re still people — we joke, we swear, we drink.
As for how I resolve being gay and part of the church, the church I’m part of doesn’t allow for same-sex marriage or the blessing of same-sex civil unions.
But within the same family of churches, there are others like the Episcopal Church in the United States, the Episcopal Church in Scotland, and the Church of Wales that do allow and bless same-sex marriages. There are a lot of clergy who are LGBT and live with their partners.
You won’t know if something works for you till you try
Though the job is significantly different from everything else I’ve ever done, I found that many of the skills that were core to what I was studying and working on before — diplomacy, reconciliation, and public speaking — were still useful as a pastoral assistant.
In many ways, it’s not that different from what I did before. Both politics and faith are about peace and justice. Helping people to find that, hopefully by guiding them through all the ups and downs of life, is so rewarding to me.
There’ll never be a perfect set of circumstances to uproot your life and try something you’ve always been curious about.
If there is a burning desire you have, there’s only one way to find out if it will work for you.