But Rupert Mackay has spent equal years working in the cut-throat world of banking in London to investing time to his Christian life at church.

Rupert, 39, has now taken up full-time his spiritual calling, and is part way into his first curateship at Knutsford Parish Church.

But the serenity of a pastoral Knutsford life could not be further removed from Rupert's first job in the city.

He left school and entered city banking at the somewhat tender age of 18, after his stepmother gave him a jolt that 'he couldn't live off his father for the rest of his life.'

"It sounds harsh but sometimes you do need telling a bit of home truth," he says. "It was just the push I needed and within a month I had got a job."

He started out at Baring Brothers in 1980 writing out cheques, but within four years had been promoted to investment management.

"It was great fun and I made a lot of friends," says Rupert.

"It was the start of the Thatcher era with lots of privatisations and a good time for banking."

But at the same time Rupert had joined St Helen's Church in Bishopgate - a church that welcomed many like-minded members of the business community - and the first church that Rupert had attended.

Rupert, though, had become a Christian at the age of 13 after he caught his brother Stephen reading the Bible.

"He didn't tell me much about it, but said he would write and tell me," he says.

"We were in different schools at the time, but when the letter arrived I just knew it was going to contain the most important information.

"He wrote and explained to me all about the Christian faith - that Jesus had died for me and would forgive me if I trusted in Him.

"My spiritual life took off from that moment, once I had discovered what the Christian message was all about."

But as a young Christian Rupert struggled to find like-minded individuals, and at school he was ridiculed and called 'grandad' for what they saw as old-fashioned values.

"It didn't stop me from making my own friends," he says.

It was a struggle that would continue into his working life, when colleagues would ridicule him for his beliefs.

"I have never tried to ram it down anyone's throat, but at the same time if you discover the best deal going ever, like I did with Christianity, then it is normal to want to tell people about it," he said.

"I was given some God-given information and it has to be shared."

In 1987 Rupert decided to take on a full-time job at the church as an associate staff worker, a diversion from the investment banking he had been enjoying.

But after a year working at St Helen's, Rupert was not sure that he was ready, at 26, to teach the word of God to the extent that he would have liked.

"There were very bright people going ahead of me, and I felt that I was not up to it yet."

Rupert says that from an early age he did not consider himself an academic, struggling to some extent because of his dyslexia.

"I don't hold it as a grudge," he said. "Some people are born tall and some people are born short.

"You have to get on with whatever God has given you."

Rupert was born just outside Paris in September 1961 and spent his early years travelling because of his father's job in the Royal Air Force.

His parents' marriage broke down when Rupert was seven. His father left for Mozambique while his mother returned to England via Spain with Rupert.

He was sent to boarding school at Bilton Grange prep school near Rugby until he was 12, which gave him a stability he craved.

"I remember that I just wanted to be settled in one place," he says.

"But I was a bit of a rebel and got caned and slippered."

At12 Rupert attended Skipton College at Henley-on-Thames where he began to enjoy rowing and became head boy.

"The discipline of rowing helped me enormously and being a Christian at school helps you to have some sort of authority," says Rupert.

"Having that authority helps you when you want to kick against it."

Since leaving school, Rupert recognises his career has been through considerable gear-changes and it changed again in 1988 when he joined a head-hunting firm in the city.

"That job was a real eye-opener," he says.

"It was a very profitable business. My boss was earning up to a million and a half a year."

After just six months at the firm, he began to think of another change to find the role to suit him best.

His drive to teach the Christian message brought him back to the church, and he joined the Scripture Union in 1988 as a camp leader for young children where he stayed for seven years.

He remained a member of St Helen's, and in 1993 he met wife-to-be Hilary in the kitchens of the church, marrying her within the year.

He returned to work at St Helen's in 1994 as a youth worker, but after another two-year stint he became unsure of what to do next.

"I could have stayed within the semi-professional church, but it didn't give a great deal of structure," he says.

So he applied to the Church of England and after a tough selection procedure was asked to join the clergy.

Rupert immersed himself again in studies at Oakhill theological college, where he gained a BA honours degree.

But the experience of going back to a student's life was immensely enjoyable.

"I know what it is like to be at the top, so I quite liked going back down to the bottom.

"You don't have any responsibility when you are at the bottom. You are free to do what you want to do."

Rupert expected to return to his sponsoring diocese in London, but heard of a vacancy in Knutsford, working for Nigel Atkinson at St John's.

"The most important thing is the person you work for, as they train you, and you need a like-minded person."

Once he had chosen Knutsford, everything else fell into place for the Mackays.

"One of my wife's prayers was that the children would find a school," he says.

"They were answered because Victoria is now very happy at Yorston Lodge and the children seem very settled."

Rupert's spare time is spent looking after their three children, Victoria, Jamie and Nicholas at the family home in Gough's Lane, and with all the children under five years old he admits it takes up most of their time.

The curateship has offered Rupert a real challenge in communicating the Christian message and he now feels he has found his true vocation in life.