Stephen Plant, who has been a Methodist minister for 20 years, is to be ordained as a Church of England deacon by the Bishop of Ely, Stephen Conway, at a service in Ely Cathedral, on Saturday 2 July (15.00).
He will continue to serve as a self-supporting (non-stipendiary) minister as the Dean of Trinity Hall and during vacations, will assist on Sundays in the Parish of St James, Cambridge.
Brought up in northern England, Stephen studied Theology at Birmingham University and then worked in a leprosy village in Tanzania.
He trained for the Methodist ministry at Wesley House, Cambridge upon his return from Africa and completed a PhD for the University of Cambridge on the uses of the Bible in ethics.
He held numerous positions in the Methodist church as a Circuit minister, as European Secretary for the Methodist Church and as a member of the Conference of European Churches Central Committee.
For nine years, he was Senior Tutor at Wesley House and taught theology and ethics in the Cambridge Theological Federation and in the University of Cambridge Faculty of Divinity.
He spent one year in between, as a lecturer in Theology at Durham University. Many of his students were Anglican ordinands. He has written widely and edits the journal ‘Theology’.
During this period, Stephen felt drawn to Anglicanism and offered as a candidate for Anglican ordination.
“I am very glad to be able to serve as Dean of Trinity Hall and look forward to sharing worship with the congregation at St James’ Church,” said Stephen.
Stephen will be ordained Priest by the Bishop of Huntingdon, Dr David Thomson, in the Chapel of Trinity Hall in September, 2011.