[Episcopal News Service] The Rev. Cherry Vann was elected archbishop of Wales on June 30, according to an announcement from the Church in Wales, becoming the church’s 15th archbishop and the first woman, and the first gay person, to serve in that role.
This makes her the first woman archbishop serving in the United Kingdom and, according to the Guardian newspaper, the U.K.’s first gay archbishop – and the first openly lesbian and partnered primate in the Anglican Communion.
Originally from Leicestershire, England, Vann has served as bishop of Monmouth, in Wales, since 2020. She was ordained deacon in 1989 and was among the first women to be ordained a priest in the Church of England in 1994.
Vann told the Guardian that after moving to Wales, she was able to be open about her 30-year partnership with Wendy Diamond, since the Church in Wales allows its clergy to be in same-sex civil partnerships. While the Church of England allows civil partnerships of its clergy, they must agree to remain celibate.
Vann succeeds Bishop Andrew John, who resigned in July after three and a half years as archbishop. He left in the wake of a report from the body that manages the church’s property and financial assets that described “revelations of safeguarding failures, blurred boundaries, inappropriate conduct, weak control environment and lack of transparency in management at Bangor Cathedral.” John also had been serving as bishop of Bangor.
After her election Vann, who also will remain bishop of Monmouth, said, “The first thing I shall need to do is to ensure that the issues which have been raised in the last six months are properly addressed and that I work to bring healing and reconciliation, and to build a really good level of trust across the church and the communities the church serves.”
She will be installed in a service at Newport Cathedral later this year.