Installation of the Precentor

November 29th 2008 at Ely Cathedral

The Revd Dr James Garrard, 42, was been installed as Precentor of Ely Cathedral and Residentiary Canon during Choral Evensong on Saturday 29 November.

Dr Garrard comes to Ely from the Diocese of Blackburn after seven years as Priest in Charge of St Leonard’s Balderstone and Warden of Readers (Lay Ministers) and Director of Reader Training.

Before coming to Blackburn, he served in the Diocese of Wakefield from 1994 where he was Assistant Curate in Elland Team Parish for three years and Team Vicar of the Parish of Brighouse and Clifton from 1998.

Dr Garrard is a church historian who trained for the Ministry at Westcott House, Cambridge, after gaining his doctorate at Keble College, Oxford, in 1992. He graduated from Durham University in 1988. His research focussed on the life of William Howley, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1828-1848, who opposed the Representation of the People Act which was eventually passed by Parliament in 1832.

Dr Garrard met his wife, the Revd Ros Lane, while training at Westcott House. She has been working as Chaplain to HM Prison Kirkham in Lancashire. They have a son, aged four, and a daughter, aged two.

“I am excited and privileged to be starting here at Ely,” said Dr Garrard. “We have had such a warm welcome. This magnificent cathedral is a very special place.”