It was announced from Downing Street this morning that the next Dean of Ely is to be the Revd Canon Mark Bonney.
Mark, 55, is currently the Canon Treasurer of Salisbury Cathedral, an office he has held since 2004. Educated in Ipswich and at Cambridge, he was ordained deacon in 1985 and priest in 1986. He was Chaplain and then Precentor at St Albans Cathedral between 1988 and 1992, vicar of Eaton Bray (1992-96), and Rector of Great Berkhamsted from 1996 until he moved to Salisbury. He was a member of the General Synod from 1995 until 2010, serving as a Chaplain to the Synod for five years, and as a member of the Liturgical Commission for four years. He is Chair of the Salisbury DAC and is the Cathedral’s representative on the diocesan Sudan Committee which promotes the diocese’s link with Sudan.
Canon Bonney, who is married with two teenage daughters, will be installed as Dean of Ely in September.
Further information can be found on the Ely website.
What is there to say?
Career priest, good C.V., safe pair of hands, obviously a nice man.
… but what about that previous Salisbury diocesan Sudanese link? Could he be someone to help the next Archbishop of Canterbury quietly to bring the Province of Sudan fully back into the Anglican Communion fold and detach them from the schismatic ACNA?
… there again Ely is linked with Vellore in South India and perhaps Deans of Ely don’t get much involved with subterfuge?
Time will tell.
Sounds like an excellent candidate, with good local connections. Being a cathedral dean is a pretty unenviable job these days, even in a cathedral and town as lovely as Ely. I wish him every blessing.
“What is there to say?”
Sir Cliff can surely come to the rescue here – “CONGRATULATIONS”