ST PAUL’S CATHEDRAL
RESIDENTIARY CANON - CANON PASTOR
Outline description and specification
The context of work at St Paul’s
St Paul’s has a mission and ministry full of opportunities and challenges. The Residentiary
Canons share with the Dean the task of leading the Cathedral, including working with the Lay
Canons on Chapter to oversee the governance and policies of the Cathedral. Integral to this
task of leadership is the necessity and opportunity of working corporately, including close
working with professional colleagues across the various departments of the Cathedral.
Worship and mission are the primary tasks of the cathedral clergy, and the portfolios of
leadership and oversight that each one carries are the focus of their ministry, but by no means
the only way in which that is expressed. The Chapter expects that the particular gifts of the
Dean and Canons will be exercised and developed in the wider service of the Cathedral’s
mission. Being a Canon at St Paul’s thus offers great opportunities in partnership with the rest
of the Chapter and the wider Cathedral, and the specific responsibilities of the Pastor should be
read in that context.
St Paul’s draws together in its ministry and daily life a complexity of activities, projections and
aspirations. Amongst other roles, it is the Cathedral of the Diocese of London, a national
church, an icon of resilience in the face of adversity, an architectural heritage centre, a partner
in the City of London, the seat of the Bishop of London, a place of debate and challenge, a space
of worship and holiness, and a commercial enterprise. It is a Christian church and seeks to
preach the Gospel of Christ, yet is also “owned” by many who would profess no Christian faith.
This all brings with it great opportunities, and challenges, in sharing the Christian faith. A
process of consultation and development from September 2012 resulted in Chapter agreeing a
Vision and
Values statement at the end of 2012, with a Strategic Plan agreed and issued in July 2013. The
new Pastor will play an integral part in enabling this shared vision for St Paul’s to be worked out
in the Cathedral’s life over the coming years, seeking both to encourage and challenge as well as
facilitating change in the light of the demands of the Gospel.
The Cathedral’s gathered community is its 125-strong staff and at least 180 further working
volunteers, as well as its relatively small number of regular worshippers. Overseen by the
Chapter, the Cathedral’s governing body, and other statutory committees, these people serve
regular and visiting worshippers, friends and supporters, audiences and sightseers and, of
course, each other: in total nearly two million people passing through the doors of this holy
place each year.
St Paul’s also runs a school for the choristers together with over 200 other day pupils; the St
Paul’s Institute provides a source of challenging ethical debate between the Christian faith and
finance; the St Paul’s Forum provides an adult learning programme; the School and Families team
provides an interactive experience reaching out to school pupils mainly from within London.
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Our mission concerns include reaching out to youth in a challenging world, to families, to the
conscience of the business community of London, to the marginalised, and to those without
faith, in particular the great numbers of young people in London.
St Paul’s is the Cathedral for the Diocese of London, and is seeking to develop further its links
with the Diocese and its parishes, under the leadership of the Bishop of London. The next phase
of the Diocesan plan – Capital Vision 2020 – was launched at St Paul’s in June 2013, and the
Cathedral is looking at how its own vision will interact with that of the Diocese in order to
maximise the missional impact of the Cathedral within the Diocese across London. St Paul’s is
also looking to develop partnerships with Southwark Cathedral and Westminster Abbey, with
the City churches, and with education, business, public and voluntary sectors for the common
good. The relationship with the City of London was brought into sharp focus by the 2011-12
protest camp on the steps of St Paul’s; the Cathedral has worked through the St Paul’s Institute
to engage with ongoing issues and events within the financial world. Part of the role of the
Chancellor is to develop the educational role and outreach of the Cathedral; the Pastor will be
engaged in how St Paul’s missional and pastoral work connects and grows with the City and the
wider population of London in a sensitive and supportive way.
The cultural ministry of the Cathedral is an important part of its life both in relation to music
and art. It is a significant venue for concerts and exhibitions throughout the year, and has an
important collection of art and historic artefacts. It also has a role in awakening wider spiritual
awareness: the open evenings during the Olympics and Paralympics drew in hundreds of people
looking for a quiet space, and the Cathedral needs to find ways to further open itself up as a
portal into spiritual life and Christian encounter with God.
The Diamond Jubilee Celebrations and the funeral of Lady Thatcher included a focus on St
Paul’s, and there are such times when the glare of the world-wide media is on the Cathedral.
This is not always experienced as comfortable, but is always important: St Paul’s role as the
“church of the nation” took on a particular significance with the Occupy protest, which made it
a focus for society-wide concerns about the dynamic between wealth and poverty, conservative
order and visions for a new type of society. The Cathedral also has an international reach:
there are strong links with the USA evidenced by, for instance, the American Memorial Chapel
and the annual Thanksgiving Day service. It is also the church of the Order of St Michael and St
George, the Order of the British Empire and the Knights Bachelor, as well as a centre for
worship and thanksgiving for national organisations such as the Order of St John. There are
diocesan connections with the Berliner Dom and the church in Angola and Mozambique
through ALMA (Angola London Mozambique Association: www.almalink.org).
Following a major fund-raising campaign 2000-2011 for extensive restoration of the fabric,
further work will be needed on both ongoing maintenance and on better ways of welcoming
visitors and improving facilities for them. The burden of heritage is costly and continuous, and
the preservation of the fabric of St Paul’s could come to dominate all other tasks. It does not,
because priority is given to its role as a worshipping church with a demanding cycle of liturgy
and music and a significant mission. The Cathedral has few endowments and little outside help
with its work and running costs, and the necessity of charging leaves it vulnerable to external
events. In 2012, of the 1.6 million people who visited St Paul’s Cathedral, 740,000 were paying
visitors; enabling sightseers to be alongside – and to become – worshippers is an ongoing
challenge.
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The Canon Pastor
The Chapter of St Paul’s consists of the Dean, four Residentiary Canons and four additional
members of which at least three must be lay. The Dean has overall responsibility for the life
and leadership of the Cathedral, chairs the Chapter, and is the primary representative of St
Paul’s to the outside world. The Precentor has oversight of welcome, liturgy and music; the
Treasurer oversees the fabric and finance of the Cathedral and its interpretation in sharing the
Christian faith; the Pastor has responsibility for overseeing faith development and pastoral care,
not only with staff and volunteers but for all who come to the Cathedral, and those who do not;
and the Chancellor has oversight of education and collections, theology and outreach. Each is
assisted by a Lay Canon who brings expertise to share in the oversight of that area of the
Chapter's responsibility
The Pastor works as one of the team of residentiary Canons. S/he will be committed to daily
worship and share in its leadership, join in pastoral care and mission, and work with the
Chapter through meetings and personal contact to further its work. The Pastor's role - along
with the other members of Chapter - is to engage with the Cathedral’s mission by helping
people to encounter God and grow in faith, by personal example and engagement, and by
enabling the Cathedral community and its structures to do this better: pastoral care for those in
spiritual and practical need includes evangelization and challenge for individuals and
communities. The work of the Pastor revolves around building the capacity of the Cathedral to
implement its Vision Statement, enabling people in all their diversity to encounter the
transforming presence of God in Jesus Christ, through:
 building relationships with staff, volunteers and regular worshippers, enabling them to
understand more about Christian faith and to help our visitors to understand and
encounter it too;
 acting as the Cathedral's designated Training Officer, to co-ordinate training and support
for staff and volunteers;
 sharing the Christian faith in imaginative ways, including through appropriate use of
communications and technology;
 developing external relationships and partnerships, including oversight of fundraising
operations.
In order to undertake these tasks, the new Pastor will need to be an Anglican priest and
teacher, having been in holy orders for at least six years, with experience of involvement in a
wide range of liturgy; able to self-manage spiritual and emotional life in a challenging context,
with a robust prayer life, and to preach creatively; emotionally intelligent, with good experiences
of team membership and leadership, able to deal constructively with conflict; someone with
vision and imagination and the ability to take initiative, who can demonstrate experience of and
ability in managing people and resources, with ICT and communications skills; open to learn,
flexible, with a good sense of humour, and supportive of the cathedral tradition of worship and
its opportunities for mission.
S/he will love others in the name of Jesus Christ, with an integrated vision for mission and
pastoral care, and a track record of effective prophetic and pastoral ministry. S/he will develop
appropriate teaching and training structures, and grow fruitful relationships inside and outside
the local, diocesan and world church, particularly in the wider civic and business community.
S/he will act as Chaplain to the Cathedral School, and nurture faith development for members
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of the Cathedral community, regular worshippers and others. S/he will also be competent to
oversee areas of the Cathedral’s life concerned with supporting the welcome and mission of St
Paul’s, including marketing, communications and fundraising.
Applications
Full details and an application and ethnic monitoring form are available from:
Dean’s PA, The Deanery, 9 Amen Court, London EC4M 7BU
0207 236 2827
deanspa@stpaulscathedral.org.uk
Applications should arrive by 9am on Monday 14th October 2013. Shortlisting will take place on
22nd October, and interviews will be held on Tuesday 5th November.
If you would like an informal conversation about making an application, please contact the Dean
through his PA on 0207 236 2827.
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