Hundreds of people attended a special service at Carlisle Cathedral to welcome the new Archdeacon of Carlisle.

The Ven Ruth Newton was officially installed as Archdeacon of Carlisle during the service on Sunday (8 September). It means a return to her birth county with Ruth having been raised in Carlisle and – following ordination in 2002 – serving the parishes of Caldbeck, Castle Sowerby and Sebergham.

Latterly she served as a Vicar near Ripon and is married to Andrew with whom she has two grown up daughters, Victoria, 25, and Ellen, 21.

More than 200 people gathered at the Cathedral – including a contingent who had travelled over from Ruth’s former parishes in Yorkshire - to witness the Rt Rev Rob Saner-Haigh, Acting Bishop of Carlisle, welcome her.

He told those gathered: “I want to extend my own warm welcome to all of you, particularly to Ruth on this special day. We are delighted you are here along with Andrew, Victoria and Ellen.

“Thank you for making the move over here and joining us. We are so grateful to have you and for you to be partners in the gospel with us. It is good to share this worshipping time together and pray for Ruth as she begins this ministry and for her, Andrew, Victoria and Ellen in this next stage of life.”

Click here to view more pictures of the service.

Ruth takes responsibility for the Deaneries of Carlisle, Brampton, Penrith and Appleby and will also have responsibility as Archdeacon around safeguarding as well as the Diocese’s Christian retreat and conference centre, Rydal Hall.

The Dean of Carlisle, the Very Rev Jonathan Brewster, also installed her to the Cathedral’s College of Canons.

During the service she preached on a passage from St Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians telling those present: “Thank you Bishop Rob and the Dean for your welcome. Thank you all for coming today and for the welcome and prayers that you are offering.

“I hope my new role is not too much about buildings, buildings, and buildings but rather a role which enables and supports others in mission and is primarily about the people and God. I confess that there are many reasons why I applied for this role, not least because I wanted to come home. Since we arrived on the first of August, and standing in this cathedral where I was ordained as both a Deacon and a Priest (longer ago than I care to remember) I do feel that I have come home.

“I did mean what I said in the press release [announcing her appointment]. It wasn’t a mere soundbite that my faith story is bound up with the faith stories of so many of the churches which I am now called to serve. Christian presence, Christian mission in this place matters to me not only because it should, and not only because it’s what God’s asked me to be, but because it’s where I’m from.”

Growing up, Ruth worshipped at St Elisabeth’s Harraby, then St James Carlisle before her family moved to Dalston and she joined St Michael’s where she became head chorister. She was also the youngest churchwarden in the country – aged 26 - when serving at St Giles Great Orton.

After training for ordination at St John’s Nottingham and serving her curacy in Cumbria she was appointed Vicar of Hutton Cranswick with Skerne Bewick and Watton in the Diocese of

York in 2006, also serving as Assistant warden of Readers and as Rural Dean. Five years later she became Priest in Charge of Kirlington, Burneston, Wath and Pickhill in the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds. From 2015 she served as Canon Evangelist at Ripon Cathedral.

Since 2017, Ruth served as a Priest in the parishes of Sharow, Copt Hewick, and Marton Le Moor in the Diocese of Leeds. For the last two years she has also held the role of Mission and Evangelism Tutor at St Hild Theological College Mirfield. She has also been a General Synod member – the Church of England’s national assembly.

She is also a passionate advocate for rural ministry and environmental matters and sat as a National Rural Affairs Group Church of England representative on the Arthur Rank Centre’s trustee board. At Leeds Diocese she has acted as an Environmental Working Group Training and Theology Advisor and co-created and co-developed a new lay ministry pathway, the “Eco-Mission Enabler”. Ruth also runs an environmental blog site “Greening the lectionary”.

ENDS

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