Revd Dr Alan Conant

VICAR

Alan grew up by the sea, in a small fishing town in East Devon. It was here he developed a love of walking, exploring the coast paths of the South West and always enjoyed finding out what was over the next hill. As a youngster he was a server in his local parish church, often arriving fresh from a Sunday morning paper round. Two things helped to influence his faith at that stage, a good friend and a Gideon bible. He left school to study Biochemistry in Canterbury where he stayed on as a postgraduate. During that time he managed to take in periods of work in Macclesfield, Sittingbourne and Munich. A career in science took him first to work in Bristol for a short while working on malaria and then on to Liverpool where he worked on heart disease at the University. This led him to work for a number of years on a collaboration with the research labs at the Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital.

Merseyside is now his adopted home. He met his wife Andrea here and all of their three children Sophie, Daniel and Ben were born in Liverpool. The family moved to worship in Wavertree for a number of years at St Bridgets and St Thomas’s church where Alan was invited to try his hand at preaching by his then vicar Rev Bill Sanders. That opportunity awoke a calling in him, so Alan set aside his microscope and relocated the family to Nottingham where he studied at St John’s College. After two very intense but enjoyable years, and all too soon after they had arrived, the family were repacking their belongings to return to Merseyside

“Moving around has given us all a good opportunity to meet many wonderful and gifted people and we are all looking forward to making new friends as we settle in to the community of Rainhill.

Alan took up a curacy working under Nick Wells in the Maghull and Melling Team of churches. This gave him the opportunity to explore ministry in a variety of contexts in a busy team and to learn the ropes of becoming a vicar.

Alan is particularly thankful for the support given by his family, particularly his wife Andrea. They have travelled with him across the country and back again as he pursued his calling into ministry.

Outside of ministry, he enjoys time with the family but he does try to find time to keep an interest in the natural world through bird watching and astronomy. He also has recently taken up a bit of rock climbing and hopes to keep fit riding his bike around the parish. He maintains an interest in the interaction between science and faith and will be happy to bend anyone’s ear on the subject.