Today we talk to The Rev Jane Sherwood, who is vicar of St Luke's Church in Oxford WHAT I’M CALLED: Jane Sherwood.

MY AGE: 49. Yes it’s the big 50 this year! Not until November, and I still haven’t decided what I should do for it!

WHAT I DO: I am a vicar of a small church, St Luke’s in Canning Crescent, South Oxford, which also functions as a hub for the community. I am also an artist, and love painting landscapes, portraits and still life in acrylics.

WHERE I LIVE: You could say I live on the job. I live next door to St Luke’s, so there is no excuse for being late for work.

WHO I LOVE: I love my wonderful family: Jem, Sam and Sophia. I also love the church and this local community.

HAPPIEST YEAR: I would like to say this year! There is so much significant stuff happening, including our church nearly reaching its target to renew and extend the building for the local community.

DARKEST MOMENT: I don’t like to dwell on the dark side. I don’t think there is anything dark which cannot be transformed by the love of God.

PROUDEST BOAST: I’m proud of the people of St Luke’s... that a little community of ordinary people can achieve so much together.

WORST WEAKNESS: I do like the odd glass of Chardonnay.

LESSONS LEARNED: Listen to your intuition more – it will open up exciting possibilities. Also dare to believe the impossible.

DULLEST JOB: I think I’ve been lucky enough not to have had a dull job — or if there have been moments of dullness, they have been enlivened by the people I’ve worked alongside.

GREATEST SHAME: Locking a girl in my parents’ garage and leaving her there, when I was about nine. She forced her way out and I wasn’t allowed near her house for the next two years. Funnily enough, last year my mum moved to Oxford, and left the street where this happened. Before we left my childhood home for good, I knocked on the door of the house where this girl had lived as a child, and who should answer it but her (she was visiting her parents). I recognised her at once, and was able to say sorry to her for the crime of my youth that has haunted me all these years!

LIFELONG HERO: My dad is my lifelong hero. He died in February last year. He was a doctor, and worked in Zambia in his younger years, where he often had to perform emergency roadside operations, with very little equipment. I was born in Zambia and lived there ’til I was two. He always said to me that I would be a vicar one day. I’m not sure how he knew. Intuition.

OLDEST FRIEND: My cousin Jenny, who lives near to me in Oxford.

WIDEST SMILE: At my wedding, at the birth of my two children, and at my ordination.

FAVOURITE DREAM: I often have dreams that I have learned how to fly. It’s great fun.

BIGGEST REGRET: Maybe that I didn’t rekindle my love of painting earlier.