HISTORY MADE AT CATHEDRAL
DEAN SARAH TALKS ABOUT HER PATH TO THE TOP JOB
The Very Revd Sarah Brown was installed as the new Dean of Hereford last month during a special choral evensong which also celebrated the Feast of St Thomas of Hereford. In a service which was livestreamed and attended by members of the Cathedral communities of Peterborough and Hereford, representatives from Hereford Diocese and local dignitaries, Sarah became the first woman in the 1,300 year history of the diocese to be appointed to the role of Dean of Hereford. Here she talks about her exciting new position.
Congratulations on your appointment as the Dean of Hereford! What drew you to apply for the position at Hereford Cathedral? I’m thrilled to be here but still somewhat amazed by it all. Although I had been encouraged by the National Church to apply for senior posts, I was unsure and felt nothing affirmative from God around roles like Suffragan Bishop or Archdeacon, so 18 months ago I asked The Church to take my papers out of the pool.
Then in March this year I had a rather wary phone call saying that I had been suggested as an interesting candidate for the position of Dean of Hereford and would I look at it.
I prayed and discovered that I could ‘hear’ and ‘feel’ the place and the people. That conviction continues to grow. It isn’t simply that Herefordshire and South Shropshire are stunningly beautiful; that this is a well-supported Cathedral; that I have relatives just over the border in Monmouth; or that this is a land flowing with beef and cider! It is that I think I God has called me here.
I believe in God’s call. I have taken many jobs for pragmatic reasons but those in which I have made real impact have come to me unexpectedly. Despite already working at Peterborough Cathedral, it had never before occurred to me that I might apply to be a Dean and I’m fairly sure that I’m not meant to be any old Dean. I think it might just be this one.
On paper it all fits too. I could not have made up a post that better brings together all the best bits of my ministry to date; agriculture, rural church, market towns and Cathedral city all in one!
You have shared that you found your faith in your late 20s after joining your church choir. How do you think this has shaped your journey on the Christian path? I’m not sure I would have found my way to God any other way. I was a young adult in the late 80’s/early 90’s - very driven, selfish and rather cavalier in the way I led my life. I nearly ran off the rails and did some damage to myself and others and I became painfully aware that I could not trust my own instincts. I went to a carol service in the village church and found myself unexpectedly realising that I wanted to go to church to get myself sorted out but knowing also that unless I had a job to do I would probably not bother. So, I joined the choir and found a whole gaggle of grandmothers who were just brilliant when I was pregnant with our first child and who later accepted her noisy baby presence in the choir with great warmth and tolerance. I loved the music and the words of the service and started to get interested in the whole God phenomenon, assisted by a patient rural vicar who answered my many questions, gave me jobs to do and spotted potential that I had no idea I had. I will always be grateful to that church. Their ministry to me changed my life.
Looking back the choir - and it was a bit musically wobbly to be honest - was a foundational place of Christian community and gave me space to belong while I came to believe. Singing good church music drip feeds theology too and is missionally instructive.
LIVE24-SEVEN.COM 63
INTERVI EW THE VERY RE VD SARAH BROWN
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