Welcome our new intern

St George’s welcomes Xenia Smykova (also known as Cass) as our new church intern. She will be with us from February until June 2022.

We greatly enjoyed having Daleen with us, and we now have the privilege of Xenia. Here she introduces herself:

I grew up in a British expat community in the south of Spain, near Cadiz, with a Russian Orthodox mother and an Irish Catholic stepdad.

I found my way to the Church of England while completing a BA at the Pontifical University in Rome. While in Rome, I was searching for a community where I would feel at home, and I found it in the chaplaincy of All Saints.

At All Saints, I volunteered to organise some services and took care of the sacristy and did some Bible studies. I continued doing those things for a year as part of the Diocesan Ministry Experience Scheme.

I then served as a pastoral assistant in the chaplaincy in Copenhagen for another year, prior to arriving in Switzerland in September 2021 to study at The Ecumenical Institute at Château de Bossey, which is part of the World Council of Churches and attached to the University of Geneva.

Today, I’m following God’s call to minister in the Church, which I see as an integral part of the process of growing in the understanding and practice of being a Christian.

Although I may seem a shy person, I also see myself as social and outgoing. My interests include modern and ancient languages, art and culture, interreligious dialogue and ecumenism, as well as sports, swimming and long walks. And I love animals!

Cass assists with Holy Communion, led by Revd Reija.