SOUTHEND’S first female Archdeacon, Mina Smallman follows her instincts and never judges other people. She says these are values that have served her well. It has guided her to champion underprivileged residents as a priest in Thames View in Barking, east London, as well as support young people in the local area.

Mina says: “I am drawn to helping people on the fringes of society, the poorest, the least likely to get support and the youth.”

She wants to extend her mission to Southend when she starts her new post in September. When I meet up with Mina at the Diocesan Office in Chelmsford, she is friendly and has the demeanour of someone who has a lot to do.

“I’m here to speak to someone about furniture,” enthuses Mina. “I’m very excited about it. We are going to be based in Benfleet, the house is very nice, but it will be great to put our stamp on it with the decor.”

We settle down for a chat in the attic room office. Close up Mina looks at least ten years younger than her 56 years. She has bright, dark eyes and a smiley manner as she tells me about her life.

She was born in Middlesex to mum Catherine, who was white and of Scottish decent and dad Bill who was of Nigerian heritage.

She was fostered for five years, from nine months to five, by a family in Dagenham.

Of her childhood she says: “Things were different then. Being a mixed-raced couple they found it hard to get childcare and even get somewhere to rent. “Mum was a jazz singer and worked in a factory in the day. Dad studied medicine, before going into electrical engineering.

“They worked so hard to create a better life for the family and so it was decided I would be fostered. I held no resentment against my parents for this. I accepted it and it was lovely and I love mummy Peatty and Bill who I lived with.”

Mina continued to visit the family up until age 12. She says: “I have memories playing on the corner and seaside trips to Walton-on-the-Naze, the sweet peas in the garden and playing outside with all the children. It was a lovely time.”

Growing up mixed race in the sixties did not have an impact on Mina. She says: “I can count any racism I experienced on one hand. It was not an issue for me. Maybe because I had such a strong East End accent at that time, I just fitted in!

“Then we were expected to assimilate completely and not learn the mother tongue. Now people are taught to learn their heritage.” Mina studied drama, English and voice at the Speech and Drama college. She says: “As a student a group of us took a play called Balm of Gilead to the Edinburgh festival in 1989. We ended up going on the radio, opening a cafe and singing to Sean Connery.

“I was also in a soul funk band, Tama Shanti. My husband Chris is a drummer and music is a big part of our lives now.”

Mina believes she gets her musical talents from her late mum. She says: “Mum was a trained opera and jazz singer who had a voice like Ella Fitzgerald, but never pursued it. I never knew why. I think that’s where I get my singing from.”

Mina worked as a drama teacher for many years and the breakdown of her marriage saw her walk away from the church for 15 years.

She says: “My marriage was breaking down in my twenties and in my mind I didn’t think I was good enough for God, because I was not perfect. I thought He wouldn’t love me because I was in an abusive relationship.

“A lot of people do have that idea, but I can see that now actually the complete opposite is true. Come and be cleansed and God will take care of you.”

It was her subsequent marriage to Chris and happy family life which took her back to her church.

It was many years before Mina considered being a priest and then she went to theological college. She says: “I was going to church and kept hearing the voice coming back to me when I listened to the sermon, saying I would do something like that. I also had people coming up to me from nowhere saying they’d had a vision about me. Eventually, I decided to try to start the process.”

Mina sticks to her non-judgmental values when it comes to the contentious issues surrounding the church. On gay marriage, she says: “I cannot say someone living with a same sex partner for 20 years does not deserve the same right to marry as heterosexual couples.

“However, the church needs its own dialogue when it comes to gay marriage, so it can be achieved the right way. What is ‘right’ outside the church is different within the church.

“Where there is God things flourish, as with female priests, and if He decides the same for gay marriage and for the appointment of female bishops then they will flourish too.”

Speaking about her own role, she has been quoted previously as saying her appointment was “against all odds”. I ask her what she means by this.

Mina, says: “I said ‘against all odds’ because most people are ordained for 14 years or so before they become an archdeacon. I was ordained seven years ago, so it’s legal, but not necessarily the norm.

“I was part of the decision-making group deciding how to spilt up the Diocese of Chelmsford, so I did not think I would be the archdeacon. “Also the fact I am a woman and there are less women archdeacons, although that is changing now.”

So if she was happy as a priest in Barking, why did she accept the role?

She says: “I was very happy with what I was doing in Barking. But God has plans for me and I go where I am needed.

“Since I was a young child, I have heard God’s voice and I follow his direction. “I heard him say I would be Noah in the belly of the whale if I stayed. I needed to go somewhere and make a difference – the same thing I had done in Barking.”