Our 2025 candidates will be ordained at Hereford Cathedral at the following times:
Ordination of PriestsSaturday 5th July, 11:00 AM |
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Ordination of DeaconsSaturday 5th July, 15:30 PM |
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Deacon Biographies:
Below is a list of Deacons who will be ordained this year. We have explored each ordinand's journey into faith, and we're delighted to share their personal stories here for you to read and learn more about each one:
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Hello! My name’s Ewan, and I’m incredibly excited to be heading back to Herefordshire to serve my curacy in the Ariconium Benefice, just outside Ross on Wye. If you’d have told me ten years ago that a dog collar would end up being part of my work gear, I’d have been more than a little surprised – I never really went to church much when I was younger, and in fact, I was a staunch atheist until my adulthood, when I encountered the Lord in my first year of university in Birmingham. A huge part of my calling to ordination is to minister to those who have not yet encountered Christ – to go out and, as the ordinal puts it, “accompany those searching for faith.” My move from critic to cleric was one that I never saw coming, and the Lord has blessed me in so many ways since that day that I chose, for the first time, to walk into a church to pray. The years that followed have been a journey of faith, as well as a journey of relocation – after university I moved to Hereford from my home in Northamptonshire to take part in the Ministry Experience Scheme whilst going through the discernment process, and then after that went on to Oxford, where I have spent the last three years training for ordination at St Stephen’s House. I can’t wait to come back to Herefordshire to minister, live, and worship alongside you all in what is such a beautiful part of God’s creation. |
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Hello, my name is Phillippa. One of the earliest photographs I have is of my Baptism, on my 1st Birthday at St Michael’s Church in Abberley, a small village in Worcestershire. When I was old enough, I attended Sunday School and later joined the Choir. Growing up in the countryside fostered my love for the natural environment and it is often when walking on the hills that I feel closest to God. In my late teens I drifted away from Church and dipped in and out over the next twenty years. In 2015 I met my husband who was a committed Christian and attended the Community Church in Colwall. We went together and I was welcomed by the community. About three or four weeks in, I had a very intense encounter with God, I felt surrounded by His loving presence and wept. Sometimes in our culture tears can be seen as a sign of weakness, but Psalm 126 states that those who sow in tears, reap with shouts of joy. Tears play an important part in the healing journey. My road to ordination has been a time of healing. The call to ordination came on a quiet day in the Summer of 2016. I ignored it, thinking as many do, that I was not the right sort of person to become a Vicar. Then in 2020 we decided to move to Leominster which meant leaving my role in the NHS. In the space for reflection this gave me, the call to ministry emerged again and so I tentatively approached the Diocesan Director Of Ordinands. To my surprise I managed to get through one of the longest and most rigorous selection processes and was enrolled at Ripon College Cuddesdon. I truly believe that having an intimate relationship with God and being part of a safe and practising Christian Community is good for you. I hope that in curacy, I can serve Kington and the surrounding parishes with an infectious faith. |
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Hi, My name’s Vickie and I will be ordained deacon on 5th July 2025. I was really blessed to have been brought up in church from a young age, influenced by my mum whose faith was an important part of her life. As a young person, youth club and summer camps were a significant part of my journey and when I was 16, I did a Youth For Christ summer programme called ‘Street Invaders.’ Whilst this was only a 3 week programme, the experience was invigorating and I loved the way everything I did was driven by my faith and love for God and I think this is probably where my sense of call first came from although at this point I didn’t have a clear sense of the shape it might take. Throughout my twenties and into my thirties, Church continued to play a significant part of my life as my husband is ordained; I was involved in leading worship; in youth work and in Church admin. However, for much of my twenties I experienced a significant level of sickness and during one of these times when things seemed pretty bleak, I was given a word from Psalm 118 that ‘You will not die, but live to declare the works of the Lord.’ 18 months after this, I went into remission and against all the odds have remained so for over 15 years. Around 6 years ago I again felt prompted to pursue the call to full-time ministry. Having now greater experience of different denominations, I felt that this call was specifically to the Church of England because of the distinct role it has in the community and the opportunities this therefore presents for sharing the gospel with others and as Psalm 118 says, ‘to tell what he has done.’ I have been training with CGH, in Ludlow and Cuddesdon just outside Oxford for the past three years alongside my job as a teacher which I will relinquish prior to ordination. It has been a rewarding and enriching experience and I am so excited to begin my curacy in July. |
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Hello, I'm Kate, and I'll be serving my curacy in the Broseley Group of Churches in Shropshire. Whilst I'm not from a church-going family, I had what you might call a culturally Christian upbringing. I fondly remember the religious education and assemblies of my primary school days, but as for many people, I think, that was a part of life that fell away when I moved on to secondary school. I've spent most of my career in public health, in work related to inequalities and social justice and supporting people's flourishing – their fullness of life if you like. While that felt like a vocation, and I was on a path sharing many of the values and instincts of Christian faith and ministry, I was increasingly experiencing a sense of something missing and of not quite being where I needed to be. It was at the time of a significant bereavement, when my family and I were blessed by the pastoral care and incarnational ministry of our parish priest, that I really recognised God present to me, and felt stirrings of what would become a sense of vocation. There was something deep in his ministry of presence that called to something deep in me. A journey of growing faith began, and in time, of discerning a call to ministry, with a sense of God present to me still, throughout. Feeling pastoral care was my particular path, I moved from my former career into NHS chaplaincy, in which I had the privilege of accompanying people of all faiths and none as they walked in the valleys and shadows of life. I witnessed the power and comfort, but also the challenges and questions of faith, and learned a great deal from both the experience and the people I supported. More recently, alongside family, my focus has been on my training and further discernment as my sense of vocation has shifted towards parish ministry. So, I’m very much looking forward to curacy and to walking with the people and communities of the Broseley Group of churches. |
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My name is Christine Cattanach, and I am looking forward to serving my curacy in StowCaple near Ross on Wye. My own faith journey has given me valuable experience of several different churches. I grew up in a Methodist church in Leicestershire, the same church where my husband Mark and I were married. I drifted away from church in my early 20s but an experience whilst living in Hong Kong made my faith more real. Since then we have been part of several independent church plants and have settled for the last 20 years in rural Herefordshire to live intergenerationally with our children and their paternal grandparents. The call to ordained ministry has been with me for a very long time, but when I started working as an Intergenerational Missioner in Hereford Diocese in 2018, other people began to see this call and encouraged me to explore it. During those six years, God used my previous experiences working as a teacher and in Health and Social care with people with Learning Disabilities and those living with Dementia and even of using my cartographic background to connect with people of all ages and backgrounds. I was given the opportunity to study at CMS where I expanded my own theological understanding of mission. Discerning what God is doing and joining in with his mission is an important way that I have seen ministry flourish. God used this role to create so many wonderful things but for me still there was this nagging feeling that would not leave me, and a growing appreciation for traditional worship that was leading me toward a ministry that would be authentic in mission and also sacramental. Engaging and nurturing the faith journeys of those inside the church and those outside feels part of this call, particularly in rural settings. The last two years has been something of a betwixt season as I have paused full time ministry to complete my training at CGH and CMS and Ripon College Cuddesdon whilst also working for the charity Headway. I am now beyond delighted to be coming to work as a curate alongside Rev’d Laura Hewitt who will be my Training Incumbent as we minister in StowCaple. I am looking forwarded to continuing learning and to getting to know the people who live in these places and seeing where God leads us all. |
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Hi, my name is Geoff, and I'm delighted to share that I'll be ordained a deacon this July in Hereford Cathedral. I'll be serving my curacy right here in the Abbeydore Deanery and the Black Mountains Benefice, where I live. I grew up in Herefordshire and first realised that I really did believe in the good news of Jesus Christ at a summer camp, part of a Christian after-school club run by Bishop’s school in Hereford. At university in Southampton, I got involved with the Christian Union, enjoying new and exciting expressions of my growing faith that felt very different from the village churches I had grown up in. After training as a teacher, I moved to Kent and got married. While teaching, I set up a charity linking primary schools in Kent and Uganda. A number of years later, my wife, Christine, our two young children, and I moved to Mozambique to work with the Mozambique Baptist Church on a training programme for smallholder farmers. Now back living in rural Herefordshire, I maintain strong connections with Africa, working for a charity that supports church leaders across the continent to access desperately needed training and resources for their communities. I've always felt a deep connection to remote and rural areas, and I really love the people and the place where I live in the Black Mountains. A draw towards the margins has been an important feature of my own journey of faith. When I first explored getting more involved in the worshipping life of the community here, I was sure that it would be in some sort of lay capacity. However, after going through the ministry discernment process, I realised God had something else in mind. I've been training for ordained ministry for the past three years, attending CGH in Ludlow on Wednesday evenings and Cuddesdon in Oxfordshire at weekends. From the summer camps of my youth, via African villages, to the Black Mountains I now call home, I'm deeply grateful to have the opportunity to serve in ordained ministry with the people and communities who live in this very special place. |
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Hello, my name is Suanna. I am being ordained in July and will serve my curacy with the Bartestree Cross Group of Churches. I grew up in a Christian family. God and His church have always been an important part of my life. Throughout my childhood, my family frequently relocated due to my father's military service. This nomadic lifestyle continued into adulthood. Over the years I’ve worshipped in many different churches. One of the things I love about the Church of England is its diversity and breadth of tradition. But the one thing all these churches have in common, is a community of people who love God and each other. It is these people who have nurtured me through life’s ups and downs and who helped me grow in faith and love. I was first asked to consider ordination in my late twenties, just as I was starting my teaching career. I laughed at the suggestion, probably because of my own insecurities, and my idea of what a priest was and looked like. I didn’t fit my image of a priest. I continued to grow in faith and love through serving God in my own way. Eventually, I moved to a lovely rural village in Herefordshire and threw myself into village life. I became the Church Warden; began leading worship, giving talks, and more importantly, listening to God. I felt God was asking me to trust him and begin a journey with an unknown outcome. I felt a strong need to learn more, to develop my knowledge, skills and myself. So, I began Reader training through CGH. Although I really enjoyed the training, there was something not quite right. there was a nagging feeling that I wasn’t on the right path. Something felt off but I couldn’t see what it was. Towards the end of the first year, the question of ordination came up again. Somewhat hesitantly and without any expectations, I agreed to explore this calling. After a year of prayer, conversations with trusted advisors, the Church’s robust discernment process and finally BAP, I switched to Ordination training. Though I don't know God's plan for me as a minister, I trust Him. I finally feel confident that I am becoming who He has called me to be, and I am truly thankful and excited about that. |
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Hi, I’m Alex, and I’m very excited to be starting my ordained ministry at St Peter’s and St James in Hereford, serving part-time alongside teaching at Whitecross. My journey of faith started when I was very young, and I’ve always looked for how God might be calling me to serve him. I spent 8 months in Uganda when I was 18, living with the local Anglican community, teaching in a village school, and visiting people in their homes across the hills. I learnt to trust God completely in situations where my own experience gave me nothing to rely on. When I returned home for university, I sought out opportunities to worship and learn with other Christian students, and spent summers volunteering in Glasgow, staying with families on some of the inner-city estates, and working with addicts and homeless men and women. I had always wanted to teach, and felt a clear call from God to serve him amongst young people on the margins. Following this call meant 10 years in southeast London comprehensives, where I loved working with teenagers from a huge range of faiths and cultures. After a few years in Winchester, where our boys were born, we moved back to my home village in Herefordshire, St.Weonards, and I threw myself into my career in education. It wasn’t until I stepped down from my role as a head of English in 2020, and began leading church online twice a month, alongside part-time teaching, that I found myself as I said to a friend, “getting more excited about teaching the bible than Shakespeare”. I was leading a congregation, nurturing teenagers in their faith both in church, and in youth groups, and getting young children actively involved in worship, but still had no formal role or training, and that all started to feel a bit out of kilter. So I began to explore reader training, and realised very quickly I felt a strong pull to be with people on their whole journey – for the start of a life of faith in baptism, to marry people, to the end of this life. Three years, and a lot of essays later, I’m definitely more equipped for ministry, but I’m still as sure, 30 years on, that trusting God is the most important thing. |