Press release from the Prime Minister’s Office
There is more information on the Carlisle diocesan website.
Appointment of Dean of Carlisle: 28 June 2023
The King has approved that The Reverend Jonathan Brewster be appointed as Dean of Carlisle.
From: Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street
Published 28 June 2023
The King has approved the nomination of The Reverend Jonathan Brewster, Interim Mission Community Leader, Cartmel Peninsula, in the Diocese of Carlisle, for appointment as Dean of Carlisle, in succession to The Very Reverend Mark Boyling following his retirement.
Jonathan was educated at University College, Buckinghamshire and King’s College, London, and trained for ministry at Trinity College, Bristol. He served his title at St John’s, Great Horton, in the Diocese of Bradford (now in the Diocese of Leeds) and was ordained priest in 1995.
In 1998, Jonathan was appointed Chaplain at Westminster University, in the Diocese of London. From 2003, he served as Vicar at Christ Church with St John and St Saviour, Highbury and, from 2014, additionally as Area Dean of Islington. In 2017 he was appointed Canon Treasurer at St Paul’s Cathedral.
Jonathan was appointed to his current role as Interim Mission Community Leader, Cartmel Peninsula, in the Diocese of Carlisle, in 2021.
As I know Carlisle Diocese a little I’ll offer a congratulatory word to Revd Brewster. As he moves from one end of the diocese to the other he’ll know the challenges of making Carlisle Cathedral feel integral to the life of the diocese. The announcement about the Bishop of Winchester can’t be far off.
As a native Carliolian I echo Stephen’s good wishes. A fine workaday city with some lovely buildings, the cathedral its jewel. As to its people, I relate a story told me by Carlisle novelist Margaret Forster (I hope she wouldn’t have minded) of an exchange between her father and a visiting nurse bent down dressing his poorly leg. Imagine the flat vowels and properly pronounced consonants.
“Yer must find it hard doin’ a job like yoo-ers.”
“Why’s that, Mr Forster?”
“Well, with you bein’ so stout.”
Carlisle factual straightforwardness with offence neither intended nor taken.
As another native I wonder what you mean by ‘workaday’ city? Carlisle is a very typical English cathedral city, comparable in very many ways to Worcester, Hereford or Lincoln which are all a similar size. The cathedral is fortunate today among the great mediaeval English cathedrals in no longer having a nave, usually the boring bit of the building that no one much knows what to do with. It also has some unusually preserved mediaeval paintings of the life of St Augustine of Hippo – a church father held in particular opprobrium by one of its most famous deans, Dr… Read more »
I believe there are family links to the area – the new Dean’s sister is the director of the Rose Castle Foundation.
Thanks for that Simon. A most interesting appointment, and full of promise. The British Council’s website has this about his sister: Canon Sarah Snyder is the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Advisor for Reconciliation. This role has a particular emphasis on supporting the Anglican Church in contexts of violent conflict or post-conflict and helping the Church to be an agent of reconciliation and conflict-transformation.A theologian who specialises in Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations, Sarah brings wide-ranging international experience of peace-building and dialogue. She has worked for many years to promote faith-based reconciliation, most recently as Director of Partnerships with Religions for Peace International, an organisation… Read more »