Vicky Beeching

Musical career

Beeching's mother, who leads musical worship at her church, taught Beeching to play the piano and guitar when she was a young child. Beeching began writing songs at the age of 10, and leading worship music in church youth services in her early teens.

From 1997 to 2001, she attended Oxford Vineyard Church, where she also led worship music during services. At Vineyard, she learned more about music writing from Brian Doerksen and Brenton Brown.

Beeching moved to Nashville around 2002 for her music career. In December 2002, she released the Shelter EP through EMI UK and was featured on various compilation albums. She disclosed in a 2003 interview that she had recently quit her job as a Management Consultant so that she could focus on worship music full-time.

Beeching signed with Sparrow Records and released a 2005 EP, titled The Journey. Her first full-length Sparrow album, Yesterday, Today & Forever, was released on 27 December 2005. Her second full-length studio album, Painting the Invisible, was produced by Ed Cash and Nathan Nockels and released on 3 April 2007. Beeching wrote most of the album's material, although a few tracks include songwriting from Ed Cash, Matthew West and Joy Williams. Several of the songs for the album were written on Keith Green's old piano, at the invitation of her mentor and friend, Melody Green.

Hoping for a less conservative environment than Nashville, Beeching moved to San Diego in 2008 and began performing in churches there. Her third studio album "Eternity Invades" released in 2010, was recorded in San Diego. It features a song co-written with Steve Fee, "Glory To God Forever".

Beeching was a worship leader at Spring Harvest Church from 2010 to 2012, leading worship in the 'Big Top' at Minehead and participating in the Spring Harvest Theme Group.

Discography

Compilation appearances

Media presence

Beeching's blog, which enjoyed some popularity, covered difficult Christian issues such as the role of women in the Church. Her blog was the Winner for Best Blog in the 2011 Christian New Media Awards.

Beeching began speaking out in favour of gay marriage beginning in December 2013. Her blog posts on support for same-sex marriage were widely read and received a mixed response - many LGBT Christians expressed their gratitude and shared their own stories of faith and sexuality, but some of her social media followers expressed disapproval, even 'quite vitriolic and quite personal' criticism. However, in response to the discussions she'd started in the church about sexuality, she received a nomination for the 2014 National Diversity Awards in the category of "Positive Role Model Race, Faith & Religion". (She did not end up on the shortlist for that year.)

In August 2014, Beeching announced she is a lesbian. In November 2014, she was awarded third place in The Independent on Sunday's 2014 Rainbow List (a feature highlighting influential LGBT persons).

As of mid-2015, Beeching is a regular television and radio commentator on issues related to ethics, technology, women, Christianity, music and social media. She is also writing a memoir about her faith and sexuality, to be published by HarperCollins.

Beeching also enjoys a large Twitter following (over 50,000 people in August 2014 and over 64,000 as of June 2017).

Personal life and education

Beeching grew up in Canterbury, where she attended the youth group at St. Mary Bredin Anglican church. She was enrolled in Simon Langton Girls' Grammar School from ages 11 to 18, and in her early teens she found it extremely difficult to reconcile her conservative Christian faith with her attraction to her peers at school. She moved to Oxford in 1997 to attend the University of Oxford, where she obtained a BA in 2000 and an MA in 2001, both in theology.

In 2009 she was diagnosed with linear scleroderma morphea, for which she underwent 18 months of chemotherapy.

Beeching moved to central London in December 2012. As of February 2013, she was pursuing a PhD in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University, with religion, technology, "online connectivity," and ethics as her topics of focus. In June 2014, Beeching announced that she had changed her PhD focus topic to Christianity and sexuality. Shortly after she announced her sexual orientation, an interviewer wrote that her new PhD focus is specifically Christianity and same-sex marriage, and he also highlighted that she continues to identify as an Evangelical Christian.

Honours

In June 2017, she was awarded the Cranmer Award for Worship by the Archbishop of Canterbury "for outstanding contributions to contemporary worship music".