Popular Milton Keynes GP to become minister of struggling church

Dr Sam Muthuveloe will start as Associate Priest at Downs Barn’s Cross and Stable Church in June.

“I am looking forward with great delight to my new role,” he said this week.

Currently a curate at St Mary’s in Bletchley, Dr Sam has no intention of abandoning his patients at Pennyland’s Sovereign Medical Centre, where he is senior partner.

“I will be a part-time GP and a part-time priest. I can serve people in both roles,” he said.

Dr Sam also runs a charity called Hope Outreach UK to improve life for orphans and poverty-stricken communities in his native Sri Lanka.

The charity runs orphanages, training schemes and housing project. Recently it helped build a church and community centre to serve the local people.

"I was deeply moved to see the impact the church had on the community. It inspired me," he said.

Six years ago Dr Sam went back to college in Oxford to study theology and become a church minister.

“I always wanted to be a doctor but the desire to serve God was ingrained in me," he said at the time.

Dr Sam started at Sovererign Medical Centre in 1985 and is now senior partner. The Pennyland practice is recognised as one of the best in MK in terms of patient satisfaction.