Daniel Mossfield, the new Uniting Church pastor, is at present studying for his ordination.

Pastor Mossfield, with his wife and two-year-old son, moved to Crookwell to enjoy a quiet country atmosphere.

The couple came from the Hawkesbury district of Western Sydney, where city people consider it country and country people consider it city.

Wife Nicki worked for the CSIRO at Black Mountain in Canberra before completing her teaching degree. They lived in Queanbeyan for five years where he worked in the Uniting Church.

Pastor Mossfield is 26. The Gazette asked why a young man decided to become a minister. “I acknowledge that I am Gen-Y and I’m in the church. That makes me ‘pretty weird’ among my peers,” he said.

“I was given the faith as a kid and through my teens and university, I questioned and challenged my childhood faith and what it looked like, and found it changed.

“But there was something compelling about the Jesus stories that I could never get away from.

“The idea that you can choose life in every moment, you can choose, in every act, every thing you can say or do, to give life to other people or to cause them harm.

“That you can choose to give life: I could never get away from that. I find that the church is one of the most honest places, where people can come with all their strengths and failures and find welcome.”

Pastor Mossfield arrived in Crookwell just four weeks but has already become active in the community. “I actually want to listen first and foremost for at least the first six months,” he said. 

“The congregations knows what the community needs much better than I do. I will also be going out in the community to meet with others. God is not trapped inside the walls of a church. I find the benefit of a country town is people ‘get that’. They realise that people are busy and life goes on but you can still find time for God.”

Pastor Mossfield hopes to get out into the community to speak to groups. Church attendance may have declined, but spirituality hasn’t. “I’d be interested to know where members of our community see God moving,” he said.