We are delighted to announce that we will finally be welcoming a new priest to Kirkby Malham. The Rt Rev Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, Bishop of Ripon, has appointed the Rev Dr Sue McWhinney to be Associate Priest with Rev Andrew Steer. 

Sue says "Hello, I’m Sue, and I am absolutely delighted to be coming to be your new associate priest. I am married to Paul, and we have two grown-up children, James and Sarah. I am currently the Curate at St Wilfrid’s Calverley, which is a lively church with a lot of children and families, situated between Bradford and Leeds. I’m really looking forward to meeting you all!

In a former life I worked as a rural dispensing GP near York, and spent time at home bringing up our children. We moved to Bradford in 2000 due to Paul’s work as a hospital physician, and were very involved at Bradford Cathedral until I was ordained.

Our family enjoy anything to do with the outdoors, especially walking, so we are really looking forward to living in Kirkby Malham and being a bit closer to some of the landscape that we love. Paul is also heavily involved in caving (through the Craven Pothole Club), but I prefer to enjoy the landscape from above ground!

At the heart of all I do in ministry is a desire to help people of all ages to discover a life-giving personal faith in Jesus, and my prayer is that wherever people are on their journey of faith, they will find something in our churches that will help them to make a deeper connection with God."

Sue will be licensed on the 14th of June at a special service in church, and will move into the Vicarage once renovations are complete. Sadly, because of COVID restrictions we have a limited number of places available for the service, but Sue is looking forward to meeting you all in due course.