Tenby's Rev Alex stars in BBC Vicar Academy (From Western Telegraph)

Tenby's Rev Alex stars in BBC Vicar Academy

3:40pm Monday 15th October 2012 in News

A Pembrokeshire curate is starring tonight's (Monday's) new BBC television series, Vicar Academy.

The Rev Alex Grace, who was recently ordained as assistant curate in Tenby, was one of a number of trainee priests at St Michael's College, Cardiff, who were shadowed by cameras for a year for the programme.

Alex, aged 41, who is mum to two daughters Elizabeth, aged 11 and nine-year-old Hannah, said: "Those cameras followed some of my most formative and precious moments. I hope that it was worth it and that I was really able to 'be myself'".

Sent to train as a priest from the Cynwyl Elfed group of churches north of Carmarthen, Alex will be seen on placement at a care home, preparing for her ordination last summer at St David's Cathedral, sharing the news of her first parish with her daughters and making her preaching and baptism debut there.

Vicar Academy is made by an independent company, Presentable, and series producer, Ian Durham, said: "We wanted to explore and understand the changes and challenges facing the Church in Wales through the eye of the St Michael's ordinands, who are its future.

"The overall hope is to move away from still commonly-held public perception that opening fetes, drinking tea and eating cake are the primary roles for which those who are called to ministry should be trained.

Added the principal of St Michael's, Rev Canon Peter Sedgwick:"I hope this programme will give viewers a more up-to-date impression of what today's church is all about, and perhaps inspire them to get involved in any way in which they feel called."

*The first in the Vicar Academy series in today Monday (October 15th) at 10.35pm on BBC Wales.