The Revd Canon Andrew Norman has been welcomed and licensed to the new post of Director of Ministry and Mission in the Diocese of Leeds.
At a service at Ripon Cathedral, which also included the licensing of five Area Deans for the Ripon Area, Bishop Nick Baines (pictured right) welcomed Andrew to the new role. “Andrew brings exceptional experience, expertise and theologically informed passion to the task”, said Bishop Nick. “He is joining a motivated team in Leeds and will bring unique skills to this stage of our mission and ministry.”
Andrew Norman joins the Diocese of Leeds after serving for seven years as Principal of Ridley Hall in Cambridge, an Anglican theological training college. "I’m grateful for the warm welcome I’ve received to the Diocese," said Andrew. "‘Living, Loving, Learning’ is a great motif and I’m enjoying doing plenty of ‘learning’ as I begin my time in post. I look forward to helping the Diocese live into its demanding but exciting vision."
As Director of Ministry and Mission, Andrew Norman will lead a core team who oversee clergy training, church growth, community work, vocations, and work with children and young people.
Andrew has wide experience in the Church of England, including being the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Secretary for International, Anglican Communion and Ecumenical Affairs, which expanded his interest in the Anglican Communion and global Christianity. His book ‘A Church Observed’, shortly to be published, examines what it means to be authentically Anglican in changing missional contexts.
A farmer’s son, Andrew read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford, before working as a lay assistant in inner-city Liverpool and then with the banknote printers, De La Rue. He trained for ordination at Ridley Hall and served in churches in Paris and Bristol. His MPhil is in the area of Anglicans, mission and ecumenism.
Andrew is married to Amanda, who is a university careers adviser and a Church of England reader. They have two daughters at secondary school.