{{Short description|Christian minister}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = The Reverend | name = Sonia Hicks | image = <!-- filename only, no "File:" or "Image:" prefix, and no enclosing brackets --> | alt = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software --> | caption = | office = President of the Methodist Conference | vice_president = Barbara Easton | term_start = 2021 | term_end = 2022 | predecessor = Richard Teal | successor = Graham Thompson | birth_name = | birth_date = <!-- {{Birth date and age|YYYY|MM|DD}} for living people supply only the year with {{Birth year and age|YYYY}} unless the exact date is already widely published, as per WP:DOB. For people who have died, use {{Birth date|YYYY|MM|DD}}. --> | birth_place = | death_date = <!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} (DEATH date then BIRTH date) --> | death_place = | other_names = | occupation = Presbyter in the Methodist Church | years_active = }}
'''Sonia Hicks''' is a British Methodist minister who was elected to serve as President of the Methodist Conference from June 2021 to June 2022.
==Personal life and education== She worked as a bank clerk for four years before training at The Queen's College (now the Queen's Foundation), Birmingham. Hicks is married to Conrad Hicks, a Methodist minister. They have three children.<ref name="ThamesValleyStaff">{{cite web |title=Meet the staff |url=https://tvmc2015.methodistthamesvalley.org.uk/staff.html |website=Thames Valley Methodist Circuit |access-date=29 May 2021}}</ref>
==Ministry== After Hicks was ordained (received into full connexion), she and her husband both were in the High Wycombe circuit for two years and then the Watford circuit for the following by four years.<ref name="ThamesValleyStaff" /> In 1998 they both moved to Jamaica where she was superintendent of the Manchioneal circuit for five years. They then moved to the Dublin North circuit in the Republic of Ireland for nine years. In 2012 she returned to Britain and joined the Thames Valley circuit where she is the superintendent minister with pastoral charge of three churches.<ref name="ThamesValleyStaff" />
Hicks has been a circuit superintendent in the British Methodist Church, the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas, and the Methodist Church in Ireland. She has been a trustee for charities such as Christian Aid Ireland and also served on committees within the organisation of the church.<ref name="MethChurch2020">{{cite web |title=New President and Vice-President of the Methodist Conference elected for 2021/22 |url=https://www.methodist.org.uk/about-us/news/latest-news/all-news/new-president-and-vice-president-of-the-methodist-conference-elected-for-202122/ |website=The Methodist Church |access-date=29 May 2021}}</ref>
In her ministry she celebrates diversity and is opposed to all forms of injustice.<ref name="MethChurch2020" />
In 2020 she was elected to the annual post as president of the Methodist Conference from June 2021 until June 2022. Hicks became the first black woman to hold the post.<ref name="inaugural address 2021">{{cite news |last1=Williams |first1=Hattie |title=New Methodist President: 'Be better at making God's love real' |url=https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2021/2-july/news/uk/new-methodist-president-be-better-at-making-god-s-love-real |access-date=23 July 2021 |work=The Church Times |date=28 June 2021}}</ref> In her inaugural address in June 2021, she spoke about how the church should respond to racism and social division, both within the church and in wider society and how these tensions should be acknowledged as well as countered.<ref name="inaugural address 2021"/> During her presidency the Methodist Conference voted to change the definition of marriage to be "a lifelong union in body, mind and spirit of two people who freely enter it". This allowed the church to celebrate and recognise the commitment of unmarried cohabiting couples as well as allow weddings between people of the same sex to be conducted. Ministers are able to opt out of officiating at these weddings through a conscience clause.<ref name="Sherwood 2021">{{cite news |last1=Sherwood |first1=Harriet |title=Methodist church to allow same-sex marriage after 'historic' vote |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jun/30/methodist-church-allows-same-sex-marriage-after-vote |access-date=1 July 2021 |work=The Guardian |date=30 June 2021}}</ref>
Hicks presided over the 2023 Methodist Conference. This responsibility fell upon her as Graham Thompson, the President of the Conference, decided not to attend due to an ongoing investigation related to safeguarding failings.<ref>{{cite press release |title=An update on the Methodist Conference from the Secretary of the Conference |url=https://www.methodist.org.uk/about-us/news/latest-news/all-news/an-update-on-the-methodist-conference-from-the-secretary-of-the-conference/ |website=www.methodist.org.uk |access-date=21 June 2023 |language=en}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hicks, Sonia}} Category:Living people Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Alumni of the Queen's Foundation Category:Black British religious leaders Category:Presidents of the Methodist Conference Category:21st-century British Methodist ministers Category:20th-century British Methodist ministers