The new Dean of Exeter Cathedral is to be Revd Arwen Mary Folkes, Downing Street has announced.
Revd Folkes, who is the first woman Dean in the Cathedral’s 970-year history, was born in Barnstaple in North Devon and was baptised in Bideford, before growing up at the Lizard Lighthouse in Cornwall where her father was one of the last live-in lighthouse keepers for Trinity House. She also spent part of her childhood at lighthouses on the North Devon coast.
She is currently Vicar of St Mary-the-Virgin, Eastbourne. She is married to William, and the couple have three children.
She said: “It seems I have been entrusted with a new lighthouse, and a rather bigger one this time! I was born in Barnstaple while my father was a lighthouse keeper on the North Devon coast, so coming to Exeter feels very much like coming home.
“I have always believed a church should be like a lighthouse: steady, watchful and ready to shine for anyone caught in a storm. Exeter Cathedral has been that kind of Christ-light for centuries, through many seasons, and I am honoured and humbled to be called as one of her ‘keepers’ by serving as the 72nd Dean.
“Most of all, I am looking forward to meeting, praying and serving with the people who already keep her light burning, the communities across Devon, and working hard to ensure the Cathedral can shine as the mother church for Exeter and the whole county.”
Read the full story: exeter-cathedral.org.uk/news-events/la…
#ExeterCathedral #YourCathedral
Revd Folkes, who is the first woman Dean in the Cathedral’s 970-year history, was born in Barnstaple in North Devon and was baptised in Bideford, before growing up at the Lizard Lighthouse in Cornwall where her father was one of the last live-in lighthouse keepers for Trinity House. She also spent part of her childhood at lighthouses on the North Devon coast.
She is currently Vicar of St Mary-the-Virgin, Eastbourne. She is married to William, and the couple have three children.
She said: “It seems I have been entrusted with a new lighthouse, and a rather bigger one this time! I was born in Barnstaple while my father was a lighthouse keeper on the North Devon coast, so coming to Exeter feels very much like coming home.
“I have always believed a church should be like a lighthouse: steady, watchful and ready to shine for anyone caught in a storm. Exeter Cathedral has been that kind of Christ-light for centuries, through many seasons, and I am honoured and humbled to be called as one of her ‘keepers’ by serving as the 72nd Dean.
“Most of all, I am looking forward to meeting, praying and serving with the people who already keep her light burning, the communities across Devon, and working hard to ensure the Cathedral can shine as the mother church for Exeter and the whole county.”
Read the full story: exeter-cathedral.org.uk/news-events/la…
#ExeterCathedral #YourCathedral
