One of our priests in the Ripon area is to be the next Archdeacon of Carlisle.
The Revd Ruth Newton, currently Priest at St John's Sharow, will take up the post in August.
She will take responsibility for the Deaneries of Carlisle, Brampton, Penrith and Appleby.
For Ruth it means a return to her home county, having been brought up in Carlisle, later working in the city and - following her ordination in 2002 - serving the parishes of Caldbeck, Castle Sowerby and Sebergham.
Ruth said: “I’m delighted to have been appointed; it feels as if I am coming home.
"My faith story is bound up with so many churches in and around Carlisle.
"It will be a privilege to be able to support those congregations in my new role as well as so many other churches."
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 has served as a Priest in the parishes of Sharow, Copt Hewick, and Marton Le Moor in the our diocese.
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.
Ruth is a passionate advocate for rural ministry and environmental matters.
She has sat as a National Rural Affairs Group Church of England representative on the Arthur Rank Centre’s trustee board.
And on our Diocese she has acted as an Environmental Working Group Training and Theology Advisor.
She co-created and co-developed a new lay ministry pathway, the “Eco-Mission Enabler” and runs an environmental blog site “Greening the lectionary”.
Ruth added: “Understandably I shall be sad to leave behind the people in my parishes who I have served and who I’ve drawn so close to.
“I give thanks for their continued faithful service and also for the rich spirit I’ve seen demonstrated in all those training for ordination at St Hild’s.
"It has been a privilege to serve them all.”
Ruth is married to Andrew and has two grown up daughters, Victoria, 25, and Ellen, 21, who is currently studying at the University of Cumbria.
Ruth will begin her ministry in the Diocese at the beginning of August and will be officially installed as Archdeacon of Carlisle at a special service to be held at Carlisle Cathedral on a date yet to be agreed.