Former Press journalist, Matt Woodcock, becomes curate in Hull

Matt, 35, a father-of-two from Acomb, has been appointed a pioneer minister at Holy Trinity in Hull.

He said his aim was to help make the church relevant. “We are a church in decline not because of our message but because of the way we share it,” he said.

“The general mentality is that people should come to us, but why would they when our services are often so boring, joyless and irrelevant to their everyday lives? I believe we should start by going out to them.”

He said the message of Christianity was more about ‘prayers and parties’ and he hoped to conduct services and get bands performing on the large square outside his church. “Christianity shouldn’t be boring – it’s fun and life-affirming – and worship should be a joyful act.”

The former Manor CE School pupil said his experience in seven years as a reporter at The Press, knocking on strangers’ doors and talking to them about their lives, had stood him in good stead.

He told how, while St Paul received a message from God on the road to Damascus, he was driving to Selby on the A19 to cover a court case when – already a committed Christian – he suddenly felt an overwhelming sense that God had something urgent to tell him.

“My battered Ford Fiesta nearly left the road as I struggled to deal with the shock,” he said.

“I pulled into a lay-by, took some deep breaths and told God that I was perplexed as to what He could be asking of me.”

The next day, John Lee, his vicar at St Paul’s in Holgate, York, asked him whether he had thought about working as an evangelist. Matt then left The Press to work as a community evangelist for St Paul’s while also joining the Archbishop of York’s media team at Bishopthorpe Palace.

Two years ago, he went to Durham University to train for the priesthood. He was ordained in York Minster by the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, earlier this month, days after moving to Hull with his wife Anna and twin babies Heidi and Esther.