The Very Reverend Catherine Ogle, Dean of Winchester Cathedral has announced that she is to retire on May 1st next year.
Dean Catherine has held the position since February 2017 and has decided to retire for personal reasons.
“For some years I’ve planned my retirement for 2025. This is the year that my husband reaches the age of 70 and we both feel that it’s the right time for us to move on into a new stage of life,” she said.
“Christian ministry is always a privilege. Serving as Dean of Winchester has been the greatest honour. I never imagined, when I became one of the first women to be ordained priest in the Church of England back in 1994, that God’s calling would lead here.
“I am enormously grateful for the adventure and companionship of the last few years as the Cathedral has faced new challenges, not least those of the Covid years, and the kindness and love that has been shared. Winchester Cathedral has a great future as well as a magnificent heritage.
“I am looking forward now to the next stage of life, to moving back to West Yorkshire and being able to spend more time with our family there.”
Bishop Philip Mounstephen said, “Notwithstanding the challenges of the last few months, I am immensely grateful to Dean Catherine not only for the warmth of her personal welcome to me, since I arrived as bishop, but also for the excellence of the ministry she has exercised at the Cathedral, making it a place of generous hospitality and uplifting worship. I quite understand her personal reasons for going, but I am only sorry we will not have had the opportunity to work together for longer.”
During her time as Dean, besides guiding the Cathedral community through the pandemic, Catherine Ogle, 63, as Chair of Chapter has overseen the million-pound organ restoration and established the Cathedral at the cutting edge of livestreaming technology. She has overseen the development of an Estates Masterplan that will direct the conservation and development of the Cathedral and estate for the next 30 years.
Dean Catherine added, “Cathedral life is all about teamwork and I’ve been blessed to work with the most marvellous team of talented people here. I know that they will continue to achieve great things in the future.
“I hope that my legacy will be that the Cathedral continues to offer a warm welcome and grow in its connections with ever more people from all backgrounds. The Cathedral belongs to us all and is here for everyone, to nurture hearts, minds and spirits and help us to connect with one another and with God.”
Prior to her retirement, she will lead the implementation of the recommendations of the Review commissioned by Bishop Mounstephen into the management and governance of the Cathedral.
Dean Catherine was previously the Dean of Birmingham, where she was for seven years, and Vicar of Huddersfield in the Diocese of Ripon, and a Vicar in rural parishes in the Diocese of Wakefield.
In 1994 she was one of the first women to be ordained priest in the Church of England following ordination training at Westcott House Cambridge from 1985 – 1988, having previously studied at Leeds University.
Her first curacy was at St Mary, Middleton in Ripon diocese from 1988 to 1991. From 1991 to 1995 she was Religious Programmes Editor at BBC Radio Leeds and attached to St Margaret of Antioch, in inner city Leeds.
The Reverend Canon Dr Roland Riem will take over as Acting Dean until a permanent successor is appointed.
He said, “Words cannot express the debt of gratitude that so many feel for Dean Catherine’s leadership of Winchester Cathedral.
“Catherine has carried the Dean’s enormous and complex workload with grace, intelligence, calmness and poise, and with a servant’s heart. She has been an incredibly kind and collaborative colleague on Chapter, while giving us a clear steer, and we shall miss her very much.
“After over 14 years at the helm of two cathedrals, though, we cannot begrudge her and Robin, her steadfast partner in ministry and life, a return to their family and familiar climes.
“I thank Bishop Philip for trusting me to be Acting Dean and look forward to continuing to serve this wonderful cathedral and to seeking with others the more settled future we would all hope for.”
