Learning to be ordinary

Most placements at Redcliffe are about 'doing' – helping students to apply what they learn in lectures to practical situations.

But third year student Diane Evans' concurrent placement allowed her to experience another dimension of Redcliffe's approach – that of 'being'.

Diane spent an afternoon a week with Sisters from The Society of the Sacred Cross, Tymawr, Lydart, about five miles from the Welsh border town, Monmouth. Each week she shared in the Eucharist, ate lunch with guests, worked in the garden or sewed, and talked with the Sisters.

"I found each separate activity to be insightful and spiritually uplifting and challenging," she says. "Having my weekly meals provided by a Society that takes a vow of poverty was very humbling, and the sharing of the Eucharist with the Sisters was a deeply moving experience."

A chance comment by the Reverend Mother also helped Diane to reflect on her career (before coming to Redcliffe) as a theatrical costumier.

"I would talk with the sisters after my work, which gave me an insight into their lives. One day after gardening the Reverend Mother echoed the words of Jean Vanier when she said that 'ordinariness is a gift'. These words had a profound effect on me. I realised that for the last 25 years I have been devoted to a career that shunned the ordinary. Theatre, by its very nature rejects the ordinary in every aspect – it wouldn't be theatre if it didn't. In the past I sought my identity through the medium of the extraordinary and through my work at Tymawr I was finding my true identity through the ordinary.

"At my farewell tea the Sisters and I both felt that this placement marked the beginning of a friendship that will continue to grow. My hope is that I continue to serve them through both 'doing' and 'being'."