Meanwhile six others will be ordained Priest in services to be held in their respective home churches and conducted by Bishop Rob. They are:

• Charles Cowling to serve Heart of Westmorland Mission Community: 29 June 2024, 4pm – Kirkby Stephen Parish
• Rachel Cunliffe to serve South Calder Mission Community: 30 June 2024, 10.30am – St Cuthbert’s Seascale
• Jacqueline Oakes to serve Whitehaven Mission Community: 30 June 2024, 2.30pm – St Peter, Kells
• Christina Brentnall to serve Grasmoor Mission Community: 30 June 2024, 6pm - St Bridget’s, Bridekirk
• Emily Bagg to serve Central Lakes Mission Community: 14 July 2024, 5pm - St Michael and All Angels, Hawkshead
• Christopher Smith to serve Central Lakes Mission Community: 14 July 2024, 5pm - St Michael and All Angels, Hawkshead

From today (Wednesday 26 June) all the ordinands will take part in a retreat at Rydal Hall, the Diocesan Christian Retreat and Conference Centre, which is led by the Rev Canon Professor David Wilkinson, Professor of Theology and Religion at Durham University and regular contributor to Radio 4’s Thought for the Day.

Bishop Rob said: “I am always amazed by the richness both of our ordinands’ backgrounds and their skills sets and the wonderful ways in which they have faithfully discerned God’s calling to ordained ministry.

“It will be a huge honour to welcome our new Deacons during the service at Carlisle Cathedral. I know that their training incumbents and all within the Diocese are fully committed to further supporting and helping them as take this important step on their ordained ministry journey.

“Likewise, it will be wonderful to join with those colleagues who are to be Priested in their home churches. There is always something special about those local services and the overwhelming sense of love, care and support which abounds as they as cheered on by the people they’ve ministered to during their first year of curacy.

“I would encourage people to join me in prayer for all our ordinands and their families as they faithfully live out their calling as ordained servants of Christ.”

Deacons’ Summary Profiles

Nick Cole – Grasmoor Mission Community
Nick, 54, was born in Billinge in Lancashire and attended secondary school in St Helens. He went on to study chemistry at Lancaster University, staying on to complete a masters in polymer science. He then completed a PGCE teacher training course at the University of Wales in Bangor before teaching in inner-city Liverpool and then moving up to Cumbria with his wife, Sue, and their four children, to teach at Netherhall School in Maryport. In 2000 he changed career, moving to Sellafield where he is a technology manager, providing strategic support to the operating plant. Nick says he had always had faith but in his teenage years it became an ‘armchair faith’. He recommitted to faith eight years ago - within a week of the same happening to Sue – after he attended his father-in-law’s funeral. He began attending Christ Church, Great Broughton, and says he felt it was a ‘sense of coming home’. He was added to a rota for readers and acted as a welcomer at the church, eventually leading to preaching and teaching. He was confirmed in October 2017. He says both he and Sue have supported each other during their three years’ training at Emmanuel Theological College. He will serve as a part-time self-supporting minister for Grasmoor Mission Community.
Nick says John 3:16 (‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…’) explains everything you need to know about God’s sacrificial love.

Sue Cole - Grasmoor Mission Community
Sue, 63, was born and raised in Blackley in Manchester. After completing her A Levels, she worked for the Midland Bank for 10 years. In 1997 she and her husband, Nick, and their family moved up to Cumbria. For 25 years Sue then worked as a registered childminder in her home village of Little Broughton before retiring in March 2020, as the Covid pandemic hit. She says her retirement has allowed her time to focus on her studies for ordination through Emmanuel Theological College, which she has completed in tandem with Nick. She and Nick have four grown up children – Jenny, Emma, Helen, and Stephen - and four grandchildren. Sue went to Sunday School as a child and was confirmed aged 11 but says ‘that was pretty much it’ until eight years ago. It was during her daughter, Helen’s, wedding at Christ Church, Great Broughton, that she felt a calling back to faith and to church. She and Nick started to attend church and the couple attended a Growing Leaders course before being encouraged by the Rev Godfrey Butland to explore ordination. Under Godfrey’s direction Sue began preaching and leading services as well as taking funeral services (a ministry which she is particularly drawn to). She will serve as a self-supporting minister in the Grasmoor Mission Community.
Sue says Matthew 7:7-8 has been a source of strength for her throughout her training for ordination (‘Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you...’).

Charlie Day – Binsey Mission Community
Charlie, 31, was born and raised in Guildford in Surrey and came to faith aged 16. He says he felt a calling to Christian youth work and after completing a degree in music journalism at the University of Creative Arts in Epsom he moved to the Diocese of Carlisle in 2014 for a youth work internship in the Furness Deanery. After a further 18 months working in youth ministry in Surrey, he returned to Cumbria as a children and youth minister in an ecumenical setting in Coniston. He also served as a secondary school worker for the Northern Inter-Schools Christian Union, helping run lunch time sessions and RE lessons. Charlie says he felt called to ordination whilst ministering in the Coniston area during the Covid pandemic, during which time his youth work had to be suspended and he began serving the needs of the wider village community during the various lockdowns. Charlie is married to Rachel with whom he has a one-year-old son, James. He trained for three years at Emmanuel Theological College and will serve as a stipendiary curate in the Binsey Mission Community. He, Rachel and James have just moved to Ireby.
Charlie says the Great Commission which Jesus gives in Matthew 28 – to go out into the world and make new believers - resonates with him as it includes the reminder that Jesus is always with us.

Dave Flitcroft – Coast to Fells Mission Community
Dave, 52, is married to Donna. He has three grown-up children and an eight-year-old son. He has worked at Sellafield since 2013 as a work package planner, with responsibility for organising planned maintenance to ensure the site’s compliance with regulated security, safety and stewardship. Previously he worked with a training company, helping high risk offenders to reintegrate. Dave was born in Blackpool and was adopted as a baby, moving with his new family to Barrow-in-Furness. As a child he attended Sunday School but in his early 20s he turned away from faith and became a member of a biker group. After becoming increasingly unhappy with his life, he left the gang and reached out to God after finding himself homeless and without work. On moving to west Cumbria, he met Donna who encouraged him to attend church. The couple then began to attend St James’ Whitehaven, where they were married, and his Christian faith was reignited. He says his calling to ordination was sparked while singing in the choir at another curate’s ordination service in his home church during which the call of vocation was discussed. Dave completed the Growing Leaders course and is also a member of the Third Order of St Francis – for those people who feel called to live out the Franciscan values in the secular world. He has trained for three years with Emmanuel Theological College and will serve as a minister in secular employment serving the Benefice of Egremont and also with a particular focus on chaplaincy at Sellafield.
Dave says that the Parable of the Prodigal Son has particular resonance for him as it encapsulates his own story and walk with God.

Dr Diane Gilmore – Two Valleys Mission Community
Di’s early years were spent in Berkshire before moving to Carlisle at the age of 10yrs where she worshipped at St Michael’s, Stanwix, Carlisle. She trained as a nurse at the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh followed by Intensive Care nursing in London, Addenbrookes Cambridge and Sheffield and then in clinical research with the Blood and Transfusion Service. Following marriage to Boyd she moved to Lincolnshire. They have two sons - Samuel and Jonathan.She then completed her Primary degree at Lincoln University followed by a PhD in social and behavioural sciences at King's College London. In her second career she worked in academia at King’s College as a non-clinical tutor within a multi-professional healthcare setting. She was appointed as a Lay Local Minister within the Lincolnshire Diocese in 2001. Having initially responded to a pew leaflet notice, when worshipping at St George’s Stamford, she has been involved with prison ministry for over 17 yrs. Initially helping with Bible study and Prison Alpha, she then tutored the Prison Fellowship Restorative Justice course in a variety of prisons across the East Midlands. Di moved back to Cumbria in 2018 where she currently worships at St Thomas’ Kendal within the Two Valleys Mission Community. Over the last two years she has felt called to be more involved in prison ministry, and so has been working as a volunteer chaplain at a local prison whilst undertaking theological training within the Caleb Stream at St Hild, Mirfield.
Isaiah 61 v 1-2 has special meaning for Di as it describes her call to prison ministry.

Dr Ruth Illman – Workington Mission Community
Ruth, 66, is an educational psychologist, currently working with an independent sector school, but previously having worked with local authorities for many years both as a teacher and a psychologist. Having been schooled at an early age in Brampton, north Cumbria, her family moved to west Yorkshire when she was a teenager. She later attended St John’s teacher training college in York and moved into a career in teaching. Ruth met her husband, Colin, while at college. The couple initially taught in York but moved back to Cumbria. From there they moved to near Manchester - where they helped lead Sunday worship - and then Cirencester – where Ruth was involved in the parish church’s Sunday School and helped start a young person’s Vestry team. Her career took her to Nottingham and then North Lincolnshire prior to a return to Cumbria. The couple, who have four grown-up children and seven grandchildren, live in Frizington. Ruth initially began training for ordination while in Lincolnshire but that had to be paused during Covid. Following the death of her father she and Colin returned to Cumbria. She resumed training in the Diocese of Carlisle through Emmanuel Theological College for two years – as she had previously completed a Theology Diploma - and has also completed the Anna Chaplaincy course, as she has a calling to minister alongside older congregation members. Ruth will be a part-time self-supporting minister and will serve the Benefice of Harrington and Distington.
The call to Samuel (‘Here I am Lord….’) is particularly significant for Ruth as she says it reflects her journey over the years towards ordination.

Dr Derek Lacey – Carlisle Rural Mission Community
Derek, 66, was born and raised in Cardiff before studying civil engineering at university in London followed by a PhD and post-doctorate research. He moved into nuclear industry research and development with the UKAEA in Warrington before moving to the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate – the industry’s then safety regulator – for just over 20 years including oversight of nuclear safety at the Sellafield site. He later joined the International Atomic Agency, acting as Special Assistant to the Director General, providing advice on safety, security and safeguards. During that time, he worked on the response to the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster and the Iran nuclear deal. He now sits on two Government committees which advise on nuclear safety and radioactive waste management. He met his wife, Janet, in church in London when both were students. The couple married in Hensingham in 1982 and have three grown up children and two granddaughters. Since 2019 they have lived in Southwaite near Carlisle and worship at St Mary’s Wreay. Derek grew up in chapel and so has always had a faith. He was baptised at 14 and when at university became an Anglican. He first began to explore becoming a lay Reader when living on the Wirral. Work pressures meant that could not be explored further until his move to Cumbria. He is a trustee of Churches Together in Cumbria for which he leads on social responsibility. He has studied for three years at Emmanuel Theological College and will serve as a part-time self-supporting minister in the Benefice of Dalston with Cumdivock, Ivegill, Raughton Head and Wreay.
“Seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you” (Matthew 6:33) remains a life verse for Derek.

ENDS

Notes to editors

Click on the respective Mission Communities links for further parish details.

Picture captions

Deacons – L to R: Dave Flitcroft, Nick Cole, Sue Cole, Derek Lacey, Ruth Illman, Diane Gilmore, Charlie Day.

Priests – L to R: Christopher Smith, Jacqueline Oakes, Rachel Cunliffe, Emily Bagg, Christina Brentnall, Charles Cowling.

Please note photos should be attributed to the Diocese of Carlisle.

For further information please contact Dave Roberts, Diocesan Head of Communications, on 07469 153658 or at communications@carlislediocese.org.uk.