Dean welcomed as Canon Theologian at St Edmundsbury Cathedral
“For me, theological learning and thinking about our faith together is something every Christian can engage with"
The Rev’d Dr Victoria Johnson, Dean of Chapel at St John’s College, has been announced as the new Canon Theologian at St Edmundsbury Cathedral.
Dr Johnson will be visiting Canon Theologian and a non-executive member of the Cathedral Chapter in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, alongside her role at St John’s.
She said: “I’m really delighted to be contributing to the life of the Cathedral in this way. Learning about God and the world is a vital calling of the Church and central to its ministry and mission, for me theological learning and thinking about our faith together is something every Christian can engage with and is more relevant than ever to 21st-century living."
Before joining St John’s as Dean of Chapel in Easter Term, Dr Johnson was Canon Precentor of York Minster, overseeing the musical and worshipping life there. Prior to this she was a Residentiary Canon at Ely Cathedral, and a priest in the Diocese of Manchester, having been ordained there in 2007. She read Theology and Religious Studies at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and studied at the Institute of Sacred Music and Divinity School in Yale, USA.
Dr Johnson worked as a post-doctoral cancer research scientist at Manchester University after gaining a BSc and PhD in Biochemistry from Leicester University prior to ordination. She is a member of the Divinity Faculty at the University of Cambridge and specialises in homiletics and liturgy, mission theology and apologetics, science and religion, music and the arts. Her first book, On voice: speech, song and silence, human and divine, has recently been published.
St Edmundsbury Cathedral is the Mother Church of the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, the seat of the Bishop and a place of pilgrimage, once part of the great Abbey of St Edmund.
The Very Rev’d Joe Hawes, Dean of St Edmundsbury Cathedral, said, “It’s an honour to welcome Victoria to the team at St Edmundsbury Cathedral where she will be a huge asset not only as a non-executive member of Chapter, helping us guide the Cathedral, but also as Canon Theologian where her expertise will be an incredible resource to staff and community.”
Published: 24/10/2024