Marlborough’s new curate, 31-year-old the Rev Janneke Blokland sat quietly in St Mary’s today (Tuesday) and revealed how a tragic car crash that killed one of her friends has not shattered her belief in God.
She heard of the death of the Rev Dr John Hughes, dean of Jesus College, Cambridge, the day after he had attended her ordination as a deacon in Salisbury Cathedral, a momentous event which has opened the door for her to become a parish priest.
“I haven’t found the words yet to articulate how it feels, how to describe what I’m feeling and it will probably take time before I can,” Janneke told Marlborough News Online.
“One of the first things that struck me when I heard on the morning after my ordination as a deacon was, ‘Am I going to lose my faith over this?’ Then I thought, well I had better not.
“John had come from Cambridge to see me being ordained by the Bishop of Salisbury. So it would be somewhat rude to give up now.
“I feel a sense of, No, I’m determined to go on. And that’s why I am here now in Marlborough where the community is really good and has been really supportive in my troubled times.”Some 25 members of her family and friends had flown in from her native Netherlands, from Germany too plus friends from Cambridge, Dr Hughes the priest with whom she had studied at Cambridge and had been her placement supervisor.
But on the return trip Dr Hughes’ blue Toyota crashed into a grey Volvo and burst into flames at Melbourn, near Royston. At 35, the fast rising young theologian died at the wheel, one of his two passengers is still recovering in hospital, the other now recuperating at home.
Janneke’s ordeal is yet another remarkable chapter in the career of a girl born into a non-religious family in Tiel, a small town in the middle of the Netherlands, who started going with friends to Sunday School at a Dutch Reformed Church.
“My belief was quite natural,” she explained. “I was baptised at 18. I didn’t feel I’m was a converted Christian. I feel I have always been a Christian.”
Unsure of what career to choose, she studied physics and theology in Nijmegen and Utrecht and then worked as an experimental physicist in Berlin, at the same time joining the Church of England chaplaincy in Berlin.
“What drives me is wanting to know how things work,” she said. “And I see that in physics and theology. It’s a matter of engaging with the questions and not necessarily finding the answer – and also in helping other people to seek the answers.
“That is what eventually drew me to the church. Here I can walk alongside people and help them.”
The Berlin link brought her to Cambridge to study with Dr Hughes, who became a friend insisting on attending Janneke’s ordination, which was followed by a picnic on Salisbury Cathedral’s green, attended in particular by her parents and sister, as well as her Cambridge friends.
“What I like about the Church of England is that it’s the parish church which is there for all the people, not just those who come into the church for prayer.
“The church may be in decline numerically but numbers are not the only thing. I am quite hopeful for the future. I can’t give you a cause or a reason, but that’s the hope I feel.”
And soon she will be zooming about the parish on her motorcycle, currently still parked at home in Tiel.
“I want to get used to the traffic here – driving on the other side of the road – before bringing it over,” said Janneke.
And spreading that message of hope that has kept her faith in the face of adversity.
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