Ely Cathedral has announced that the Dean, the Very Revd Mark Bonney, will retire next year on 31 July 2026. The press release is copied below, and there is a longer item on the Cathedral website.
The Dean of Ely, The Very Reverend Mark Bonney DL, to retire.
The Very Reverend Mark Bonney has announced that he is to resign the Deanery of Ely next year. He will have served as Dean of Ely for 14 years having taken up the role in 2012, and his retirement in July 2026 will mark 40 years as an ordained priest.
Reflecting on his forthcoming retirement Mark says “It has been the most enormous privilege and joy to be the Dean of Ely for the past thirteen years. The Cathedral is a vibrant Christian community of which I have been proud to be a part. It has also been wonderful to share in the feast of activities that happen — wonderful exhibitions, concerts and fairs. Above all it is the people who worship, work and volunteer here that make it the very special place that it is, and who I will miss the most. I will be always grateful for the support of everyone through the years I have been here and there’s a particularly good team in place across the board at the moment.
“It is the longest I have lived anywhere, so when July next year comes I will miss Ely enormously, but I am sure the time is right and I will watch from a relatively short distance (we will move to Isleham) as you continue ‘joyfully proclaiming the love of God, in worship, outreach, welcome and care’!”
Mark’s last day at the Cathedral will be Sunday 28 June with an official retirement date of 31 July 2026. The appointment of a new Dean of Ely will be taken forward by the Church’s senior appointments team in coordination with the Acting Bishop, and the new Bishop of Ely, when they are known.
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