Not for the first time, Kirkby Stephen man Phil Dew has received a calling which will see him upping sticks and starting a new chapter of his life in a different part of the country.
Mr Dew (pictured), aged 70, is a retired Methodist minister who, for the last few years, has been a big voice for the Upper Eden community as a county councillor, while also serving on the town and former Eden district councils.
In January, while walking his dog on the fell behind his house in Kirkby Stephen, Phil said he felt God speaking to him.
“He didn’t speak to me from a burning bush, but I felt God speaking to me and asking if I could start again.
“And I said out loud, ‘yep, I’m up for it’. I can start again. Then, shortly after that I was looking at an email that was sent around retired ministers in the district. It said there was a vacancy for an active supernumerary (retired) minister in Stockport. So, I thought, right, I’ll take that as a sign.”
Mr Dew said that moving to Stockport would not be something that he would choose for himself. “I like continuity. I like security – I like that sense of belonging and I’m letting it all go. I’m stepping into the unknown,” he said. But he said that the most important thing was he was going there with an “open heart and an open mind”.
Growing up in the east end of London, Phil, the son of a Methodist minister, said he had very little interest in the church.
Having got married at the age of 18 in 1972 to his late wife Anne, the following year Phil went to London University and did a degree in agricultural economics.
They then moved to Ashford in Kent and the intention was that Phil was going to go into some kind of agricultural profession, but in the end they decided that they would “drop out” and live a self-sufficient Good Life-style existence instead.
In 1980, a move was then made to Hallbankgate in Cumbria where they had a small holding.
“We had goats, hens and bees and all sorts of things like that. We also had a dog boarding kennels and a cattery,” said Phil, who added that they also bred and clipped dogs.
Then, in 1988, he had a spiritual re-awakening and felt the call to go into the Methodist ministry.
“And the only way to do that was to leave behind this life that we were living up in Hallbankgate,” said Phil, who then went and trained to be a minister at theological college in Durham in 1992 for three years.
In the meantime, while still living in Hallbankgate, Phil and Anne had three daughters, Emma, Megan and Becky.
In 1995, aged 41, he began his life as a Methodist minister based in Tebay. At the start he had about seven chapels on his patch, but that then grew to 11 when Kirkby Stephen was incorporated into his area.
“Over the years my ministry developed. It began fairly traditionally, with the taking of services and visiting people, but I believed in a kind of holistic approach to the ministry, feeling that it encompassed every part of life, so I very much believed in that community sense of church,” said Phil.
Youth work has always been very important to Phil. He connected with young people through school assemblies, set up youth clubs in Tebay, Newbiggin-on-Lune and Crosby Ravensworth, and that then developed into a youth weekend which was held at Knock every year. Alongside that, a soccer school aimed at primary school pupils also developed which was always in the first week of the summer holiday.
Out of that, then came an annual Tebay village firework display, which was first held to celebrate the millennium. That was held every year until Phil finished in 2016, when, after turning down a move to Lancashire, Phil became a minister without an appointment until he was officially allowed to retire at the age of 65 in 2019.
Phil had also enjoyed going to local agricultural shows with bouncy castles, which he used as a fun way to reach out and spread a Christian message of hope.
Then, a move into local politics was made after Phil was approached by Libby Bateman. In 2017, she was stepping down from Cumbria County Council and suggested that he could be a good candidate to replace her. She had been part of the Conservative group and Phil thought he would join that, too, having previously never been a member of any political group.
“A lot of people said ‘Phil, why did you join the Conservative Party?’ I have never voted Conservative in my life. I replied, to be honest, I’m not sure how I’ve ended up in the Conservative Party. I wasn’t big into politics, I never have been.”
But he found that he could achieve some worthwhile things in local politics that he would not have had the opportunity to do as a Methodist minister and has been able to do a lot of work, particularly with children in care.
“I’m only going because God called me. I love this community,” said Phil, who has also got five grandchildren in Cumbria.
He will start at Stockport in September and a by-election will be held for his seat, representing Kirkby Stephen and Tebay, on Westmorland and Furness Council.
