Less than two months after the first bishop was consecrated at Ripon Cathedral since 1293, a new record was set at the cathedral on October 11 when 13 canons were installed on the same day.
It was the first time that so many canons had been installed in a single service, and they included the Right Reverend Paul Slater, who had been consecrated at the cathedral as Bishop of Richmond in mid-July.
Three other bishops, of Wakefield, Huddersfield and Bradford, joined the Bishop of Richmond to be installed as honorary canons. Other honorary canons installed were the Archdeacon of Halifax, the Archdeacon of Pontefract, the Rector of Leeds and the Rector of Bolton Abbey.
Dr Phyl Johnson, a co-leader of the SPACE spiritual retreat days run for the cathedral, and Dr Colin Harrison, a Director of the National Centre for Process Innovation which employs 250 technologists on Teesside and County Durham, were both installed as capitular canons. They have both become members of the chapter, the central governing body of the cathedral.
Three honorary lay canons were also installed. They were Raymond Edwards, a founding director, and Simon Baldwin, a current director of the Leeds Board of Diocesan Finance, and John Wood, headteacher of St Aidan’s Church of England High School, Harrogate.
The installation service was held on the feast day of St Wilfrid, one of the cathedral’s two patron saints. The Dean of Ripon, the Very Revd John Dobson told the congregation he could think of no better way to celebrate St Wilfrid’s feast day than to install 13 new canons.