Canon Jane Hedges has been in ordained ministry for 26 years, having served seven years as a deaconess, seven as a deacon, then as a priest since 1994. She served her title in the Holy Trinity & St Columba Team Ministry in Fareham and following this spent five years in the Southampton City Centre Team Ministry where she ran a neighbourhood pastoral centre and was chaplain to the Royal South Hants Hospital.

She returned to the Portsmouth Diocese in 1988 as the Stewardship Adviser and was the first woman in the Church of England to be appointed to a Residentiary Canonry in March 1993. She was Canon Pastor at Portsmouth Cathedral for eight years and moved to the Exeter Diocese in the summer of 2001 where she was appointed Team Rector of the Honiton Team Ministry and later Rural Dean of the Honiton Deanery.

In January 2006 she became Canon Steward at Westminster Abbey a role which involves overseeing the welcome of visitors and guests to the Abbey. She is also Archdeacon of Westminster.

Canon Jane has been committed throughout her ministry to making the church accessible to people of all ages and from all kinds of backgrounds. One of her interests is leading pilgrimages and she has taken a number of groups to Israel, Santiago de Compostella, Rome & Assisi, the Seven Churches of Asia, and the route following St Paul’s final journey through Malta, Sicily, to Naples & Rome. She enjoys working with children and families, is very fond of animals and in her spare time enjoys supporting her own sons in their musical and sporting endeavours.