Pentecostal pastor takes up role as ecumenical canon at Southwell Minster

Southwell Minster is to welcome a Pentecostal Pastor as a canon of the Cathedral –  a practical sign of Christian unity at the end of  the 100th Anniversary of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

The Revd Christian Weaver CBE JP is the Minister of the Pilgrim Church, Queen’s Walk, in the Meadows, Nottingham. He will join the Rt Revd Malcolm McMahon, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Nottingham and the Revd Wesley Blakey, Chairman of the Nottingham and Derby District of the Methodist Church, as ecumenical canons for the cathedral.

The Bishop of Southwell & Nottingham, the Rt Revd George said: “I am delighted that the Reverend Christian Weaver has accepted my invitation to become the third Ecumenical Canon of our Cathedral. Christian Weaver has a long and distinguished ministry as the Minister of the Pilgrim Holiness Church in Nottingham, and has served as National Superintendent of the Pilgrim Church. His commitment to the people of Nottingham, his service for more than twenty years as a Magistrate on the Nottingham City bench, and his campaigns against social and political injustices, are known by many.

The Installation will be during a service of Evensong on 26th January 2008 at 5.45pm in Southwell Minster.

The Revd Christian Weaver was born in the Caribbean island of Antigua. From early childhood Christian won prizes in school and the community for his paintings. He studied art at Leicester College of Art and some of his portraits are on show in the Pilgrim Church in Nottingham. In 1963 he took up pioneering pasturing work in the Pilgrim Holiness Church and he is currently National Superintendent of the Pilgrim Church. He and his wife Daisy have been married since 1962 and have worked together in church planting and administration.

Christian has a Masters Degree in Sociology and became the first black person in Nottingham to achieve professional social work qualifications. He has taught community studies and theology in further education colleges and also spent three years working as a police constable.

He was appointed lead officer for Nottinghamshire County Council, seeing through the authority’s policies on equal opportunity and race equality. His work in the community and campaigning for justice has led to two awards from the Queen. In June 1990 he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) and in 2002 was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). Christian has also been a magistrate in Nottingham for over 20 years.

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