Thief Prisoner Soldier Priest
Imagine growing up in a chaotic world where your parents are abusive and disfunctional. Family life is supposed to offer safety to children but for Paul Cowley he was exposed early on to heavy drinking, explosive arguments and aggression from his father, who threw him out the house when he stood up to him in defence of his mother. This one act proved to be decisive in Paul's life, leading him into homelessness and petty crime as he mixed with the wrong crowd. Aged seventeen he was already behind bars.
But having tasted life at rock bottom, Paul was determined to make something of his future. He joined the army which 'made a man of him', but ultimately he lacked any direction and purpose and continued to make damaging life decisions, leading to divorce and estrangement from his own son.
Things were not looking good, until a chance invitation to church from an old army PT meant that Paul's search for meaning resulted in an unexpected encounter with God that changed his life for ever.
This remarkable and touching true-life account of one man's journey from thief to prisoner, soldier and, eventually, priest, should inspire anyone who feels their life is out of control or that, but for the grace of God, could have been in the same situation. It is, by turns, a dramatic, traumatic and even comic story, yet one that stands as a testament to how God offers hope to all who have the courage to respond.
Paul Cowley is on the leadership team at Holy Trinity Brompton and founded the charity Caring for Ex-Offenders. He has twenty-five years' experience of working with socially excluded and vulnerable adults, and is the Bishops' Advisor to Prisons in London. In 2015 he was awarded an MBE for services to ex-offenders.
Amanda Cowley is a landscape painter and writer. After a career in television as an art director she continued to exhibit her paintings and is in the process of completing her first novel. Amanda is involved with her husband in ministering to the people of an estate church, linked to HTB's parish, in North Kensington.