Congratulations to Angie Foster (Walmsley Parish) and Jan Bennett (St. Maxentius) on being ordained Deacons in the Turton Moorland Team at a fabulous service at Manchester Cathedral on the morning of Sunday 29 June – The Festival of the Apostles Peter and Paul.
Many friends and family members gathered at this wonderful ceremony when 21 Ordinands from across the Diocese of Manchester became Deacons.
Pictured below, Bishop David Walker received the Declaration & Oaths of those being ordained Deacon and declared there to be a great sense of joy and expectation in the Cathedral.
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After the ceremony, Bishop Mark Davies stated that there was ‘Great rejoicing for The Diocese of Manchester as 21 new deacons are ordained at Manchester Cathedral surrounded by the love & prayers of families, friends & parish communities. Giving thanks for each of them & their obedience to God’s call. God who has called you is faithful.’
Afterwards, there was an opportunity to take photos of colleagues, tutors and friends who gathered to give their warm congratulations…
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Our Team Rector, Rev Ian Hepburn, shared his good wishes on the Team Facebook Page:
‘Congratulations to Revd Angie and Revd Jan on their Ordination as Deacons today -29/6/25- Two wonderful humans, with lovely families, whose ministries are such a blessing.’Â #ManchesterDeacons25Â Â Â #TurtonMoorlandTeam
And of course … there was CAKE!!!
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At an amazing gathering held in the afternoon at St. Andrew’s Church, Bromley Cross, even more friends – including Angie & Tony’s sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren – gathered to wish REV ANGIE well in her new ministry.
Rev Chris Jamieson gave the grace before a sumptuous afternoon tea was served by the ‘ladies’. Huge ‘thank you’ to Ann D, Anne McC, Grace Ch, Gwen Ch, Kate T, Susan O’H, Sylvia H & Wendy B for a delicious feast. Tony Foster presented them all with a bouquet of flowers each.
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At the end of the afternoon, Angie gave a heartfelt and emotional speech, thanking everyone who had helped her on her journey of faith these last few years … and especially her husband, Tony. We are all so very proud of you. Tony himself responded with a lovely congratulations of his own for his wife.
And Rev Ian presented Angie with a beautifully engraved boxed Communion set; a very special gift indeed for her future ministry.
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The official photos from the Ordination of Deacons are now available!
It was a wonderful occasion as we gathered to welcome 21 new deacons into our Diocese. You can view the full list of candidates and the parishes they will be serving here https://www.manchester.anglican.org/…/petertide…
We ask you, Lord, to fill Angie with the fire of your love, that her ministry may reveal your presence in the Church. Congratulations, dear friend; thank you for all that you have done and will continue to do…
On Monday 30 June, Bishop David Walker reflected on the call to ordination in his ‘THOUGHT FOR THE DAY’ on Radio 4:
Bishop David Considers the Moments that Call us to Change
In this Thought for the Day this morning, Bishop David reflects on the courage it takes to change direction when faced with new truths—whether in politics, faith, or life. Inspired by the ordination of 20 new deacons and the transformation of Peter and Paul, he reminds us that true change is not weakness, but a response to deeper conviction.
Good morning
Economists are not generally known for their humour, so I love this quote, often attributed to John Maynard Keynes. After an opponent accused him of not sticking to his position, Keynes quipped, “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?”
As the House of Commons prepares to debate the Welfare Bill tomorrow, the merits, or otherwise, of the Prime Minister’s and government’s late change to their proposed benefit cuts, are topics to be argued in other parts of this programme. What piqued my particular interest was how much of the conversation so far has appeared to be about the very concept of senior politicians changing their minds.
Yesterday, I ordained 20 new deacons into the ministry of the Christian Church. I spent all Friday meeting with each of them privately, hearing something of their journeys to this point. Much of what they told me was deeply moving. How the sudden realisation of the reality of God, or a slow process of deepening in faith, had led them to the point where, for them, internally at least, the facts had changed. From that moment on, whatever hopes and expectations they had for the rest of their lives, those had to change too.
Around England, many other bishops have also been conducting Ordination Services in their Cathedrals over the weekend. We do it at this time of year because yesterday was the feast day of St Peter and St Paul, perhaps the two greatest leaders of the Church in its first generation. For both, the facts changed when they met Jesus. Peter abandoned his fishing trade, Paul, hearing Jesus’s voice as he travelled to Damascus on a mission to arrest Christians, became Christianity’s greatest advocate.
There is of course a big difference between reacting to a change in the facts and simply being blown along by every passing wind. My new deacons have been through several years of testing and training, Were their calling simply a whim or passing fashion, it would never have survived the scrutiny to which they have been subjected.
Many of us, in whatever our walk of life, may reach a point where simply carrying on as things are no longer works. We need to let go of the old, in order to firmly grasp the new, whilst recognising that to do so may well come at a cost. Indeed, it can take more courage to embrace change than to carry on with things as they were. As my new deacons are well aware, Peter and Paul ultimately paid for their conversions with their lives.
Yet for all of us, including priests, politicians, and economists, Keynes’s challenge holds. When the facts change, what do you do?
  
 
 
 
  
 
