HISTORY is being made this weekend, with the first Indian woman to be ordained in St Davids Diocese and the first to be ordained in the Church in Wales.

Shirley Murphy will be ordained as a Deacon, alongside four others, at a service in St Davids Cathedral on Saturday.

Shirley will serve as a curate in Narberth with Mounton, and with Robeston Wathen, Crinow and Minwear with Templeton.

Born and brought up in Chennai (previously known as Madras) in India, Shirley and her brother, Dayan, were raised as Anglicans by their parents, John and Sheila, who are regular worshippers in the Church of South India.

Shirley attended church and convent schools where, she says: “I was taught the Christian values to use in my day-to-day life.”

Shirley came to the UK in 2005 to do a Masters in Teaching English as a Foreign Language at London Metropolitan University.

Following her Masters, she worked as a linguist, interpreter and translator in prisons, such as Pentonville, care homes, hospitals, police stations, hospices and medical facilities. She also acted as a Tamil interpreter and translator for asylum seekers and refugees.

It was in London that she met her husband, Julian, from Fishguard. They have been married for 10 years and have a son, Dylan, who attends a local Church in Wales school.

In 2010 they moved to a Bronwydd just outside Carmarthen, where Shirley immediately started attending St Celynin Church.

She “very soon started getting involved more actively in church life”.

Shirley added: “I joined the PCC, then became the Vicar’s Warden and finally a Worship Leader.”

Immediately following the birth of her son, in 2013, Shirley felt called to ordained ministry, so she got in touch with her vicar to explore her vocation. Interestingly, when she discussed this with her husband and parents, their first reaction was “it’s about time”.

“That,” says Shirley, “was when I realised that the people around me knew that it was the right thing for me, a long time before I had realised it.

Shirley’s ministerial training took place at St Padarn’s Institute, Cardiff.

As part of her Summer Placement in June 2017, she returned to India to work in medical mission camps.