Lancaster Priory hosts ordination ceremony

A group of 14 new deacons and priests were ordained over a weekend in the summer and last weekend Rebecca Aechtner became the 15th person to be ordained this year.

Rebecca missed the main ordination weekend as she was on maternity leave.

So the Bishop of Lancaster, Rev Geoff Pearson, has now ordained Rebecca as a Deacon at a recent ceremony at Lancaster Priory. Also present for the service was the Diocesan Bishop, Rev Julian Henderson, the Bishop of Blackburn.

They were joined by Priory clergy, the Vicar of Lancaster Rev Chris Newlands and Associate Priest at the Priory, Rev Anderson Jeremiah, who is also Rebecca’s husband!

Rebecca and Anderson have two children – Amali, six months old, and Sundiya, four. The sermon at the ordination service was given by Jean Pearson, Bishop Geoff’s wife and Rebecca’s spiritual director. The service was attended by people from all over the world including Rebecca’s parents, Horst and Barbara, who were originally from Germany but now live in Vancouver, Canada.

The Dean of Edinburgh Susan Macdonald, was also a guest at the ordination, having first met Rebecca in the Scottish capital when Rebecca spent a few years there in her younger days.

Rebecca said: “It was a lovely service and a fantastic day. It was a very special to be ordained in the church I know very well and where I will be working.

“As well as having my family and friends in the church, being ordained by Bishop Geoff and with Jean delivering the sermon made the whole event very personal for me.”

Bishop Geoff commented: “It was a lovely service with an international flavour with family and friends of Rebecca attending from a variety of places including Germany, India and Canada.

“Rebecca is a talented young woman who I know well as she worshipped for a number of years at my church in Shireshead. So it was both a pleasure and a privilege to be able to ordain Rebecca at the Priory.”