The full team at Coventry Cathedral is made up of an exciting mix of clergy and clerical staff, maintenance staff and volunteers, a few of whom feature here. We share a commitment to the Cathedral, its community and purpose.
John is Dean of Coventry, carrying responsibility for the overall leadership of the Cathedral’s ministry both locally and internationally. After reading law at Cambridge, John spent an intern year in Manhattan, then trained for ordination in Nottingham before serving a curacy in the ex-mining parish of Birtley, County Durham.
John led churches in suburban Nottingham, Sheffield and West London and completed an M.Phil in atonement theology before becoming Dean of St. John’s College Nottingham, teaching Practical Theology and leading the residential community. He then moved to Gloucester as Director of Ordinands and Curate Training, and subsequently Director of Ministry and Residentiary Canon of Gloucester Cathedral, before moving to his present post leading Coventry Cathedral in January 2013.
Coventry’s urban setting, commitment to peace and reconciliation, and diverse tradition embodies the heart of his vocation to ordination.
John is married to Ricarda, who is also a priest, leading the Chaplaincy team in a local hospital. He relaxes by walking in the hills, and enjoys the arts, and especially the annual Greenbelt festival with its commitment to faith, justice and the arts. John and Ricarda share five adult children, a cat and several fish.
Kathryn is the Cathedral’s Canon for Worship and Community, overseeing all the worship we offer here, and striving to build relationships with those who love this place: staff, volunteers, congregation and visitors alike. An important focus since the pandemic has been our friends within city and diocese, for whom the Cathedral is “mother-church”, a space to gather people of many faiths and none.
Kathryn came to Coventry in 2014 after many happy years in Gloucester diocese, latterly as vicar of St Matthew’s, Cainscross, in the Stroud Team Ministry. She studied English at Trinity College, Cambridge and Durham, where she specialised in 17th century religious poetry, and had a varied career before ordination, as a bookseller, music-teacher, B&B proprietor and charity administrator.
Words and music are Kathryn's great loves. It was through her years of leading worship as a chorister in Cambridge and London that God first drew her towards ministry. She is an enthusiastic communicator and has been blogging since ordination as “Good in Parts”. She can be found on twitter as “Coventry Canon”.
Kathryn has three grown-up children, two grand-children and an extended family of cats, dog and chickens. Other passions include the Greenbelt Festival and India.
Mary is Canon for Arts and Reconciliation at Coventry Cathedral. In this new role, Mary is building on the Cathedral and diocese’s rich heritage of working for reconciliation, focusing especially on weaving this strand of ministry more closely with the Cathedral’s arts offering to develop creative mission opportunities.
Mary grew up in rural Leicestershire and Lincolnshire, before studying English at Birmingham University. After graduation, she worked in the Prison Service for ten years as a Prison Officer and, latterly, as a Prison Governor with responsibility for prisoners’ regimes. She was a member of a high-profile enquiry into incidents at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland, which was foundational in developing her interest in reconciliation.
Mary studied theology at Cranmer Hall in Durham. Her MA in Theological Research included an exploration of the Gospel and the arts, whilst her dissertation focused on the cultural appropriation of the holocaust at Auschwitz in post-war Poland.
She served her curacy and first incumbency in the Diocese of Sheffield, where she was also Assistant Diocesan Director of Ordinands and Dean of Women’s Ministry.
Mary then moved to become Team Rector for the Flagstaff Family of Churches, a group of six parishes in North-West Leicestershire, and Rural Mission Enabler for the Diocese of Leicester.
Mary is a serial-adopted of retired greyhounds, and a self-taught quilter. She loves walking holidays and has completed the Cleveland Way and Wainwright’s Coast-to-Coast. She has a particular passion for the rich potential of words, and for the role of beauty and the imagination in drawing us deeper into our encounters with God.
In attendance: Mrs Isabel Merrifield, Ms Julie Bellamy
Property advisor: Richard Sapcote
Finance: David Johnston
Lay person elected by the Cathedral Community: David East
St. Michael’s Committee Chair: Graham Warren
Churchwardens: Mrs Jane Edwards, Mr Jim Newton and Martin Williams
Our vision is of a reconciled and reconciling Cathedral which is open and welcoming to all, which serves to glorify God in our worship, and reaches out to the world in our ministry of reconciliation.
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Communities supporting us and each other, determined to build a kinder world.
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As part of the Christian Church living in the spirit of the Gospel, we are committed to protect and care for everyone in the church community, but especially children and adults at risk.
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