Martha Morton: pursuing social justice
Four years ago, when a B in maths detoured Martha Morton into studying RE as one of her sixth form A Levels, ‘I fell in love with going deeper into the Bible,’ she says. ‘And I wanted to study theology in the context of people loving Jesus.’
At eighteen, Martha began a three-year BA programme at Trinity as the youngest student at college with the thought of possibly becoming an RE teacher.
But time spent working with a charity in Romania shifted Martha’s thinking. Her church regularly sends its members to support the charity’s programmes for families in need.
When she was 16, Martha went to Romania for a week to help distribute supplies her church had collected. ‘You get to know each other, pray for them, or pray together if they like. You build connections and relationships, and find unity together in Christ across cultures.’
Soon Martha was volunteering each summer to help with the charity’s summer camp, a Bible club for children aged four to nineteen. ‘I’ve helped with puppets, sports, Bible teaching—it’s a small team so you help with everything except cooking meals.’
The Romanian charity is also working with young girls to help keep them safe from sex trafficking. ‘They know how the gangs work to lure the girls into it. The charity has done seminars about this for the girls who attend the camp.’
Martha learned more about sex trafficking through a friend working for the charity ‘Beloved’ in Bristol as well as from another friend working for a charity in Liverpool that seeks to help women caught in sex trafficking.
‘I want to stand up against injustice,’ Martha explains. ‘I’m looking into becoming a human rights lawyer.’
The BA Martha completes this year at Trinity can enable her to take a conversion course for law—Martha hopes after leaving Trinity to begin a graduate diploma in law.
‘At Trinity, I’ve broadened my knowledge of the Old Testament, I’ve had the opportunity to gain different perspectives from people older and wiser than me, and I’ve discovered for the first time, as someone who grew up Pentecostal, how the written liturgy can be really useful to help me worship God,’ she says. ‘The theology I’ve studied at Trinity will be really useful to me, wherever I end up.’