23 December 2024
The Revd Canon Dr Jessica Martin will be officially welcomed to the Diocese of Chelmsford and installed as the next Dean of Chelmsford at a special welcome service taking place at Chelmsford Cathedral at 3.30pm on Sunday 5 January 2025.
The service, which marks the beginning of Canon Jessica’s new ministry, is an opportunity to welcome her formally into her new role. The service will be attended by church leaders and church communities from across Chelmsford Diocese as well as civic leaders and Jessica’s former colleagues from Ely Diocese.
During the service, Canon Jessica will make her Oaths and Declarations to His Majesty the King and the Bishop of Chelmsford. She will then be Collated and Inducted, and, as a symbol of her office, the Venerable Jonathan Croucher, the Archdeacon of Chelmsford, will place Jessica’s hands on the key to the west door of the Cathedral, after which she will ring the bell to signify beginning of her ministry to the Cathedral, City and Diocese. Jessica will also be presented with her Cathedral Cope and symbolically placed in the Dean’s Stall at the Cathedral.
The Right Reverend Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani, the Bishop of Chelmsford, introduced Canon Jessica as the next Dean of Chelmsford on 28 June 2024 at Chelmsford Cathedral, where she spent the day meeting people from the Cathedral community, and from churches across Chelmsford Diocese. Canon Jessica also met local civic leaders and visited the Chelmsford Cathedral School to meet with pupils and staff.
Canon Jessica is joining us from the Diocese of Ely where she has served as Residentiary Canon at Ely Cathedral since 2016. During 2024, Jessica has also served as one of the two theological advisers to the bishops of the Church of England.
Speaking ahead of the service, Bishop Guli said:
“We are very much looking forward to welcoming Jessica to Chelmsford Diocese with this special service at the Cathedral to mark the beginning of her ministry as the next Dean of Chelmsford. Please join me in praying for her, and her family, as she prepares to take up her new ministry alongside the team at the Cathedral and as a member of the Bishop’s Leadership Team. Jessica’s extensive Cathedral experience together with her considerable skills and wisdom, will be a great blessing for the whole diocese.”
Looking forward to the welcome service, Canon Jessica said:
“It’s wonderful to be coming to the Diocese and to the Cathedral as the new year begins. I and my family are so thankful for the prayers and support we are already receiving from Bishop Guli and others, and both Cathedral and Diocese are regularly in my own prayers. I am eagerly anticipating working, praying and living in this new and exciting community as its new Dean.”
Canon Jessica succeeds the previous Dean of Chelmsford, the Very Rev Nicholas Henshall, who left post in February 2023, after which the Very Rev Paul Kennington served as interim Dean until December 2024.
Read More
- A video of the Rev Canon Dr Jessica Martin introducing herself to the Diocese of Chelmsford and the Cathedral Community can be found here: Introducing the next Dean of Chelmsford.
-
Read more on the annoucement of The Revd Canon Dr Jessica Martin as the next Dean of Chelmsford: The Rev Canon Dr Jessica Martin to be the next Dean of Chelmsford
About Jessica Martin
Jessica Martin grew up in the Surrey commuter town of Woking. She studied literature at university, which she later taught at Trinity College in Cambridge. Following her ordination in 2004 she served as a priest alongside her life as a lecturer, until 2010 when she became the vicar of three country parishes in South Cambridgeshire. Her southern most church was just two hundred yards away from the Essex border. Gradually taking on other responsibilities, Jessica served on the Bishop of Ely’s senior staff and contributed to the Church of England’s ongoing reflections on sexuality. Since 2016, she has been a Canon of Ely Cathedral, with special responsibility for learning. She has written two religious books (as well as some academic ones): Holiness and Desire, which is about sacred and profane loves and how they fit together and which was longlisted for the Michael Ramsey Prize, and The Eucharist in Four Dimensions, about the way that Holy Communion uses place and space and time. During 2024 she has been one of the two theological advisers to the bishops of the Church of England. She plays the oboe and the piano, and is married to the writer Francis Spufford. She has two daughters, Stella and Theodora.
The Revd Canon Dr Jessica Martin will begin her ministry as Dean of Chelmsford in January 2025.
About Chelmsford Cathedral
Chelmsford Cathedral is the mother church of the Diocese of Chelmsford and the seat of the Bishop of Chelmsford. The Dean of Chelmsford leads and directs the life and work of Chelmsford Cathedral in the Diocese of Chelmsford.
