Canon Jane Sinclair to retire
Tuesday, 31st March 2020
The Reverend Canon Jane Sinclair, Rector of St Margaret’s, will retire on 30th April 2020 after five and a half years as a Canon of Westminster. Initially appointed as Canon Steward, she took on the role of Rector of St Margaret’s in 2016. In that role she has greatly strengthened the Abbey’s partnership with Parliament, Whitehall and other public sector neighbours both through her ministry at St Margaret’s, known as ‘the Church on Parliament Square’ and ‘the parish church of the House of Commons’, and through the Westminster Abbey Institute, which she chaired.
Canon Sinclair said:
It has been a great privilege to serve the Abbey community and those who work in the Houses of Parliament and Whitehall; and to chair the Westminster Abbey Institute. I am very grateful to all of you whose friendship and professional skill I have come to value greatly. I will continue to remember you all in my prayers, and very much look forward to hearing of the resumption of normal life at the Abbey in due course.
The Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend David Hoyle, said:
Jane has played a central role in the ministry at the Abbey over a particularly busy and fruitful period. She is a woman of deep faith and, in Chapter and in the wider Abbey community, we have all benefitted greatly from her wisdom, commitment, insight and good humour. She has built a strong relationship with our neighbours around Parliament Square, and under her leadership the Westminster Abbey Institute has gone from strength to strength.
Jane Sinclair studied at St Hugh’s College, Oxford and then trained for her ministry at St John’s College, Nottingham and Nottingham University. She served her curacy as a Deaconess at Herne Hill Saint Paul with Ruskin Park Saint Saviour, in Southwark diocese, from 1983 to 1986. From 1986 to 1993 she was Chaplain and Lecturer at St John’s College, Nottingham. In 1993 she moved to Sheffield Cathedral to become Canon Residentiary and Precentor before taking up the position of Vicar of Rotherham in 2003. From 2007 until her appointment to Westminster Abbey she was Archdeacon of Stow and Lindsey in the diocese of Lincoln.
