New Vicar of Lancaster - 06/09/21

“Lancaster feels like a place that has legs, it’s going somewhere.

“The parish is interesting because it’s in the city centre, part of a heritage site, as well as including the Marsh estate and new housing. It’s got opportunities from every possible perspective and I anticipate it will draw on my experiences of past parishes and cathedral.”

Leah will lead worship at many civic occasions in Lancaster and at regular services but such demands don’t faze the former Canon Precentor at Wakefield Cathedral where she organised arts and cultural events.

Music was Leah’s first love as a child born in Grimsby where she joined the Grimsby and Cleethorpes Youth Orchestra.

The family moved to Saudi Arabia for a couple of years with her dad’s work, an important experience in Leah’s faith journey.

But it wasn’t until Leah joined the church choir at Huddersfield University where she studied music, that she first contemplated a church career.

And even when a fellow bellringer suggested Leah could be a priest, it took time for her to come to that conclusion.

“I was from a working class background and not sure if I’d fit in so I took two gap years to explore what it was like to work in the church.”