Fascinating article in The Guardian about two guys who started out atheist comedians and ended up becoming Christians with a priestly vocation. I’m including it here because it shows how changing paths is a very gradual process, not usually a sudden change, and that sometimes these changes are quite insidious and hard to resist.

I like the metaphor of rooms in your life that change when the Divine enters them.

Content warning for people who have recently left Christianity: you may find the article distressing.

Recently Jack has started picturing his life as a great house comprised of many rooms. There are rooms for your friendships, your love life, your career, rooms that you put signs outside declaring: I do not want this changed by my religion. Gradually, though, God starts knocking on the doors of more rooms, asking to join you in there, too. “And it’s difficult and painful and annoying,” he told me. But God’s presence also changes your experience of the rooms. You realise this was how they were supposed to look all along. You realise they have become brighter.

Lamorna Ash, Divine comedy: the standup double act who turned to the priesthood

The article also points out the institutional homophobia of the Church of England, which insists that priests in same-sex relationships must be celibate. This policy is extremely damaging and has hurt people deeply.