Anna Hawken: ‘I may have become a parent but that doesn’t change my core identity as a child of God’

Anna, what was your experience of faith as a child?

My parents both had a Catholic background but rediscovered faith when us kids came along, so they were kind of feeling their way into it as we grew up. We went to the local church. There was no separate provision for children on Sundays but I don’t remember that being much of a problem, we just got on with it and joined in.

In our home, faith was ever present. We regularly prayed at mealtimes and bedtimes. I had a plastic teaspoon stuck by my bed to remind me to say Thank you, Sorry and Please to God before I went to sleep. Prayer requests would go in the fruit bowl in the middle of the dining table so we’d remember, and we used to have lots of people’s photos on the fridge as prayer prompts too – it was all just woven into normal life.

My parents were very much co-journeyers with us, also sharing their experiences as they helped us make sense of our own

One key thing for our family was the New Wine Festival. We went on the recommendation of a family friend, having little clue what we were letting ourselves in for, but it soon became a powerful and formative family tradition. It was here that I first understood that being a Christian and part of the church meant being part of something so much bigger. I had powerful personal experiences of seeing God heal people, connect with me and ……