The Reverend Canon Simon Stevenette, 51, has been vicar of Christ Church in Old Town since 1998. He is Area Dean of Swindon and chaplain to Swindon Town FC. As part of its mission to be at the heart of local life, the church has a community centre, recently opened a garden of reflection and is planning its annual beer festival for Saturday, May 17. Rev Stevenette and wife Nicola have five sons...

“I’M very proud of Jesus, I’m very proud of being an Anglican vicar, I’m very proud of Swindon. I love my work, I’m passionate about the town and its potential.

“Anything I can do to see that potential grow, I’m there for the long term.”

The Reverend Canon Simon Stevenette insists that his interview should include his telephone number (01793 529166), his email address (simon.stevenette@gmail.com) and his physical address, which is Christ Church Vicarage, 26 Cricklade Street.

It’s a clue to his thoughts about the church, the faith and their role in the community.

“What does the church have to offer? I believe that at its best we can be like bridge-builders. I passionately believe Jesus loves everybody and is out and about.

“Our purpose as a church is connecting the community with Christ, and that’s not just done with words but with actions. Together we are Swindonians. We’re working in the town.

“What we have to offer is to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ in appropriate ways, actually to have fun with people, to work to make the town a good place.”

Mr Stevenette was born in Brighton to Angela, who died some years ago, and John, a teacher turned vicar who retired in 1999. A brother, Paul, is a project manager in industry, and a sister, Anna, runs a nursery school.

“I was brought up in a Christian home and my parents brought us up to have our questions.

“In one sense, yes, I’ve always had a belief, but when I was 16 I was helping to lead a children’s camp and it finally hit me that God loved me – Simon – as I was, warts and all.

“There’s a phrase that God has no grandchildren, only children, and I think things became really personal when I was 16 – just how much I was loved by God.”

The young man studied law and politics at Hull University, and thought of becoming a country solicitor until his vocation intervened during a visit to a monastic community.

“At the end of my first year at Hull, I went on a pilgrimage with the university students and people from York University to the Taize community in France. I was there for a week, and on the Wednesday evening there was a service. People come from all over the world, young people.

“I had a very powerful experience of God’s call.

“I phoned home and mentioned it to my dad. He said, ‘Simon, just take it steady and think it through’. But that particular Wednesday night was life-changing for me.”

He added with a smile: “I went back the following year to Taize for a month. I did a week of silence. I did a week in the kitchens; I had to peel a whole sack of onions and went from that into the church service with tears streaming down my cheeks.

“People thought I’d had some sort of revelation, but it was the onions...”

He considered becoming a monk but decided against it. Being in love with his future wife was a factor, and so was the way in which he wanted to serve.

“I’m really passionate for bridge-building and reconciliation, and I really enjoy seeing what God’s doing in the world and joining in.”

Prior to studying at Wycliffe Hall in Oxford for ordination, Mr Stevenette worked as a nursing auxiliary, in a supermarket and on a tomato farm.

Ordination in 1987 as a deacon at a church in Windsor was followed a year later by ordination as a priest in Oxford. Before coming to Swindon, he was a curate in Carterton and a vicar in Keynsham.

Then came Swindon, which he applied for because it ticked all the boxes: the old and the new towns, the countryside, a thriving community.

“On the day I said ‘yes’ we happened to go to Weston-super-Mare. I bought a copy of The Times and on the front there was a story. It said: ‘Physicists in Sussex have a discovery and are now saying the world is dull, dull, dull, just like Swindon.’ “I read that and I was so proud to be coming here. In my first sermon here I said Swindon was not dull, dull, dull, but full of life, life, life.

“I love the diversity of Swindon. In my time here there’s been huge growth in people from other cultures coming.”

About five years after coming here, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, from which he’s been in remission since a stem cell transplant in 2004.

His faith was undimmed but the treatment was gruelling. At one point the keen cyclist was unable even to push one pedal of a bike.

“I’d be in floods of tears - looking out of the window at the hospital I could see Coate Water, I could see the spire of Christ Church. I thought, ‘One day I’ll cycle again.’ “It was the sense of being in one way so unbelievably weak and fragile but that the bike was almost a visualisation that one day I would cycle again.”

In the midst of his treatment he tried to comfort fellow patients as they comforted him, and helped to set up a support group.

“I’m just so thankful to be where am,” he said. You try to ride the wave of making the most of the life you’ve been given.”

His vision of what it means to be at Christ Church and in Swindon is as strong as ever.

“We’re birds of passage but on my watch I want it to affirm what has come before me and what will come after me. I like things to be inclusive, and there’s a phrase I use a lot: ‘We’re all on this earth to live, love, learn, listen, and leave a legacy.’”