Two priests to become Cathedral canons

TWO local priests will become canons of Southwell Minster in May, when they will join the governing body of the cathedral as part of the College of Canons.

Vicar of Holy Trinity, Southwell, the Revd Mark Tanner and Team Rector of St Mary Magdalene, Hucknall, the Revd Linda Church, will be installed as canons on Saturday, May 19th at the Evensong service starting at 5.45pm.

The Bishop of Southwell & Nottingham, the Rt Revd George Cassidy said: “Both Mark and Linda have served the diocese tirelessly and continue to make a significant contribution to ministry and mission development across the parishes through their respective roles on synod and in their wider ministry.”

Mark Tanner completed a Masters Degree at Sheffield University looking at ways of making the Church relevant to today’s generation and more recently spent his three month study leave researching church re-ordering projects around the UK. He is passionate about church buildings being used for the benefit of their communities and recently oversaw a major re-ordering scheme costing several hundred thousand pounds at Holy Trinity, Southwell. His sabbatical research is due to be published in the near future.

Following training for ordination, Mark was a curate at Radcliffe-on-Trent and then became team vicar in Top Valley as part of the Bestwood Team Ministry. He took up his role at Holy Trinity in 1993, when he also worked as the Bishop of Southwell’s research officer for four years. He has also taken responsibility for St Nicholas, Hockerton. During his years in the diocese he has served as a member of Bishop’s Council and on the Infrastructure reviews for the diocese, as well as being Area Dean for Southwell Deanery. He is a governor of the Minster School, staff chaplain and chairman of the school’s strategic development committee.

Mark is married to Sue and they have three sons. Jono (22), who is a political researcher for a Labour MP; Ben (20) in his final year studying Mathematics at Cambridge University and Luke (17) who hopes to go to work with an international Mission agency. Mark enjoys walking, auctions and all forms of music and is an active supporter of Notts County Football Club.

Linda Church trained for ordination with East Midlands Ministry Training Course (EMMTC) and served her curacy at St Thomas’ Church, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, where she was a self supporting minister, alongside her post as Clinical Services manager at Ashfield Community Hospital. She moved on to the neighbouring parish of Skegby and Teversal in 1995, before leaving her work in the health service to become a stipendiary Priest-in-Charge at Annesley with Newstead in 1998. In 2003 she was appointed to her current post as Team Rector of Hucknall Team Ministry.

Linda has served the diocese on the Bishop’s Advisory Panel for Ministry, as a former trustee on the Board for Social Responsibility and as a current member of Bishop’s Council. She also continued her links with the health service as a non-executive director of Ashfield Primary Care Trust until last year.

Linda is married to Lawrence and they have three children. Nick (27), who works for Cambridgeshire Police Force in the CID; Rebecca ( 25), who is doing research into engineering needed to harness wave power at Cork University and Ellie (16), who will shortly be taking up a place at the Northern Racing College in Doncaster to be trained as a jockey.

Linda enjoys reading in her spare time, along with cooking and entertaining, but she and her husband have recently taken up an interest in horse racing!

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