Senior clergy from across the UK will be gathering this week at Bristol and
Gloucester Cathedrals for their annual residential conference.
The Deans’ Conference provides the opportunity for the Deans of the 42 English Anglican
Cathedrals, and the Deans of St George’s Chapel, Windsor and Westminster Abbey, to meet for worship, discuss matters of mutual interest, and to provide support and assistance to each other.
“We are delighted to welcome the Deans to the south west for their annual conference.
They will be staying in Bristol, a city with a long history and a strong innovative edge. The
Cathedral in Bristol stands at the heart of the city, a place of worship and prayer, a place where the city meets God and meets itself. It is the ideal place for the Deans to come together to discuss change, leadership and all the modern complexity that surrounds us and our communities”.
The Very Revd Dr David Hoyle, Dean of Bristol
The title for this year’s conference is “Priests, prophets and theologians and leaders of
Christ’s great gift, the Church” 1 . We recognise the complexity of the leadership task for our senior clergy, so the conference will explore the dynamics of leading institutions with a long history and commitment to collegiality. The Deans will be joined by eminent speakers, including Professor Eamon Duffy, Professor Sir Eric Thomas, the Rt Hon Dame Dawn
Primarolo and Lord Wilson of Dinton. The Chaplain to the conference is the Dean of
Peterhouse, the Revd Dr Stephen Hampton.
“It will be great to welcome the Deans to Gloucester. We will visit the home of Ecclesiatical
Insurance, Gloucester’s largest employer and insurer of most of England’s cathedrals. In the afternoon some participants will visit our acclaimed stonemasons’ yard while others will learn about Project Pilgrim, our ten year development programme supported by the
Heritage Lottery Fund. Gloucester Cathedral is making a significant contribution to the regeneration of the city as we seek to be ‘in tune with heaven and in touch with daily life”.
The Very Revd Stephen Lake, Dean of Gloucester
1 Quote from the Bishop of Ely the Right Revd Stephen Conway

“Each year the Deans’ Conference has two meetings in London but the third and most important one always takes place in different cathedral cities and is a residential meeting so that we can experience the life of the cathedrals. This year we are delighted to be sharing the life of the cathedrals of Bristol and Gloucester and I know that we shall enjoy the atmosphere not just of the cathedrals but of the cities themselves. We are looking forward to the conference and very grateful for the hospitality we shall receive in both places”.
The chair of the Conference, the Very Revd Robert Willis.
The conference is supported by the Ecclesiastical Insurance Group, CCLA, Access Group, and Bristol Marriott Royal Hotel.
[END]
Notes for Editors
Background
The Conference appoints a Chairman (the Dean of Canterbury, the Very Revd Robert
Willis), a Secretary (the Dean of Gloucester, the Very Revd Stephen Lake) and a Treasurer
(the Sub-Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, the Revd Canon Dr Ed Newall). It also organises training for newly installed Deans. This is Robert Willis’s last meeting as chair of the conference.
Speaker Biographies
Professor Eamon Duffy, Emeritus Professor of the History of Christianity,
University of Cambridge
Eamon did his doctoral work at Cambridge and is a distinguished Reformation historian and the author of seminal works including ‘The Stripping of the Altars’ and ‘The Voices of
Morebath’. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, an
Honorary Fellow of the Ecclesiastical History Society, an Honorary Professor in the
Department of Theology at Durham, and holds honorary Doctorates from the University of
Hull, King's College London, Durham and the Pontifical Institute for Medieval Studies in
Toronto. He sits on numerous editorial boards and advisory panels, including the Fabric
Commission of Westminster Abbey. He is a frequent broadcaster on radio and television.
Rt Hon Dame Dawn Primarolo served as the Member of Parliament for Bristol South from 1987 to her recent resignation as Parliament was dissolved in 2015. In 1985, Dawn was elected to Avon County Council, where she acted as vice chair of the Equal
Opportunities Committee. In 1987, she was elected MP for Bristol South and was reelected with an increased majority in 1992. Soon afterwards, she was promoted to Labour’s front bench team, firstly as Shadow Minister for Health and then as a member of the
Opposition Treasury team.

Labour’s election victory in 1997 earned Dawn a role in the new Government, initially as
Financial Secretary and then, in 1999, as Paymaster General. In 2007, Dawn was made
Minister of State for Public Health, then, in June 2009, she was appointed Minister of State for Children, Young People and Families, with the right to attend Cabinet when issues relating to her portfolio were discussed.
Following the 2010 General Election, Dawn was elected by fellow MPs to the position of
Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons.
Professor Sir Eric Thomas is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bristol, a position he has held since September 2001, but will shortly be leaving his post. He was awarded a
Knighthood in the Queen's Birthday Honours 2013 for services to higher education.
In July 2013, Sir Eric was appointed as the new UK Education Champion by the Government as part of its strategy to promote the UK education sector internationally. Sir Eric will also co-chair the new International Education Council alongside the Universities and Science
Minister. From 2011 to 2013, Sir Eric was President of Universities UK. He was previously
Vice-President of UUK, Chair of its England and Northern Ireland Council and Chair of the
Research Policy Committee. He was a Trustee and then Chair of CASE Europe from 2007 to 2014 and a member of the CASE Board in North America from 2010 to 2014.
Sir Eric is a Trustee of IntoUniversity and a Lay Trustee of the Royal College of
Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. He chaired the government Taskforce into Increasing
Voluntary Giving in Higher Education, which reported in 2004. He was Chair of the
Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) from 2003 to 2007 and was a member of the
Board of the South-West Regional Development Agency from 2002 to 2008. He is a Deputy
Lieutenant of the City and County of Bristol and is married with two children.
Lord Wilson of Dinton
Lord Richard Wilson of Dinton was born in Glamorgan and educated at Radley (1956-60) and Clare College Cambridge (1961-65). He was called to the Bar but, rather than practice, entered the Civil Service as an assistant principal in the Board of Trade in 1966. He subsequently served in a number of departments including 12 years in the Department of
Energy where his responsibilities included nuclear power policy, the privatisation of Britoil, personnel and finance. He headed the Economic Secretariat in the Cabinet Office under Mrs
Thatcher from 1987-90 and after two years in the Treasury was appointed Permanent
Secretary of the Department of the Environment in 1992. He became Permanent Under
Secretary of the Home Office in 1994 and Secretary of the Cabinet and Head of the Home
Civil Service from January 1998 until September 2002. He was Master of Emmanuel College,
Cambridge from 2002-12.
Bristol Cathedral and Gloucester Cathedrals
Both Cathedrals are open every day of the year for worship and visiting. For full details see below: www.bristol-cathedral.co.uk
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