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Miranda Threlfall-Holmes

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Miranda Threlfall-Holmes
Archdeacon of Liverpool
ChurchChurch of England
DioceseDiocese of Liverpool
In officeSeptember 2023 to present
PredecessorMike McGurk
Other post(s)Team Rector, St Luke-in-the-City, Liverpool (2017–2023)
Orders
Ordination2003 (deacon); 2004 (priest)
by Martin Wharton (both)
Personal details
Born1973 (age 50–51)
NationalityBritish
DenominationAnglican
SpousePhil
Childrenthree
Professionchurch historian; theologian; writer
Alma materChrist's College, Cambridge

Miranda Threlfall-Holmes (born 1973)[1] is an Anglican priest who has been the Archdeacon of Liverpool since 2023.[2]

Education and training

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Threlfall-Holmes studied history at Christ's College, Cambridge,[1][3] and receiving her Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1995: as per tradition, her BA was promoted to a Master of Arts (MA Cantab) in 1997.[1] She worked in brand management,[3] before moving to Durham to study for her history doctorate at University College, Durham. She received her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in 2000, with a doctoral thesis titled "Monks and markets: Durham Cathedral-Priory, 1460-1520".[4] She then began training for the Anglican priesthood at Cranmer Hall, Durham, and received her second BA from St John's College, Durham in 2002.[1]

Ministry

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Threlfall-Holmes was made deacon at Petertide 2003 (on 29 June)[5] and ordained priest the following Petertide (4 July 2004), both times by Martin Wharton, Bishop of Newcastle, at Newcastle Cathedral.[6] She began her ordained ministry with a curacy at Heaton, Newcastle upon Tyne; then returned to Durham in 2006, becoming chaplain[1] and Solway Fellow at University College until 2012;[3] while in that post she also served as interim Principal of Ustinov College, 2011–2012.[1] Her next post was in parish ministry in the same diocese: as Vicar of Belmont and Pittington; later in her tenure there, she also served as area dean of the Durham (city) deanery, 2016–2017.[1]

Threlfall-Holmes has been Team Rector of the St Luke-in-the-City Team in Liverpool city centre since 2017;[7] she was instituted to the role by Paul Bayes, Bishop of Liverpool, in a service at St Dunstan's on 10 August 2017.[8] Remaining Team Rector, she also became acting Archdeacon of Liverpool part-time, effective 1 February 2023.[9] On 11 June, it was announced she was to become the next archdeacon (leaving St Luke-in-the-City);[2] her substantive appointment was effective upon her collation on 9 September 2023.[10]

Campaigning and national roles

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She has served intermittently as a Proctor in Convocation (i.e. a clergy member of the General Synod of the Church of England) since 2006. She was first elected to the "Universities (Durham & Newcastle)" constituency of the Convocation of York at a by-election during the 2005–2010 quinquennium;[11] and re-elected to the same constituency in 2010, remaining until her departure from chaplaincy in 2012.[12] She was then elected in 2015 as a Proctor for Durham diocese, remaining until her move to Liverpool in 2017;[13] she was again elected in 2021, this time a Proctor for Liverpool diocese.[14]

As of 2021, Threlfall-Holmes has been a member of Women and the Church since training for the priesthood, regularly attends Greenbelt Festival and is a council member of Modern Church.[15] She was a national committee member of WATCH,[16] especially during the campaign for women to be ordained bishops in the Church of England.

In March 2024, Threlfall-Holmes posted on X (formerly Twitter) calling for “anti whiteness” in society, a post which provoked major controversy, with her comments being criticized as "racist" and "divisive". She later told The Telegraph: “I was contributing to a debate about world views, in which ‘whiteness’ does not refer to skin colour per se, but to a way of viewing the world where being white is seen as ‘normal’ and everything else is considered different or lesser.”[17]

Personal life

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She is married to Phil and they have three children.[7]

Selected works

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  • PhD thesis — Monks and Markets: Durham Cathedral Priory 1460–1520 (2005, Oxford University Press; ISBN 978-0-19-925381-4)
  • Being a Chaplain, edited with Mark Newitt (2011, SPCK; ISBN 978-0-281-06385-7)
  • The Essential History of Christianity (2012, SPCK; ISBN 978-0-281-06642-1)
  • three poems in Learning to Love, edited by Chris Goan (2014, Proost; ISBN 978-1-906340-28-5)
  • The Teenage Prayer Experiment Notebook, with her son Noah Threlfall-Holmes (2015, SPCK; ISBN 978-0-281-07257-6)
  • How To Eat Bread: 21 Nourishing Ways to Read the Bible (2021, John Murray Press; ISBN 978-1-5293-6447-7)

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Miranda Threlfall-Holmes". Crockford's Clerical Directory (online ed.). Church House Publishing. Retrieved 20 June 2023.
  2. ^ a b "Miranda Threlfall-Holmes to be the next Archdeacon of Liverpool". Diocese of Liverpool. 11 June 2023. Archived from the original on 23 June 2023. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
  3. ^ a b c Threlfall-Holmes, Miranda; Newitt, Mark, eds. (2011). Being a Chaplain (PDF). London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. p. author biography. ISBN 978-0-281-06385-7. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 June 2023. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
  4. ^ Threlfall-Holmes, Miranda (2000). Monks and markets: Durham Cathedral-Priory, 1460-1520 (PhD thesis). University of Durham. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
  5. ^ "Petertide ordinations". Church Times. No. 7322. 4 July 2003. p. 26. ISSN 0009-658X. Retrieved 21 June 2023 – via UK Press Online archives.
  6. ^ "Petertide ordinations". Church Times. No. 7374. 9 July 2004. p. 22. ISSN 0009-658X. Retrieved 21 June 2023 – via UK Press Online archives.
  7. ^ a b "Meet our new Team Rector". St Bride's Liverpool. 5 February 2017. Archived from the original on 20 June 2023. Retrieved 20 June 2023.
  8. ^ "City centre parish welcomes new leader with vision for future partnerships". St Bride's. 11 August 2017. Archived from the original on 30 December 2019. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
  9. ^ "We announce acting Archdeacons for Liverpool and Wigan and West Lancashire". Diocese of Liverpool. 16 December 2022. Archived from the original on 20 June 2023. Retrieved 20 June 2023.
  10. ^ @JPerumbalath (9 September 2023). "Delighted to have collated the Venerable Dr Miranda Threlfall-Holmes..." (Tweet). Archived from the original on 11 October 2023 – via Twitter.
  11. ^ "The Church of England General Synod: List of Members for the Quinquennium 2005–2010". Peter Owen. Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
  12. ^ "The Church of England General Synod: List of Members for the Quinquennium 2010–2015". Peter Owen. Archived from the original on 21 March 2016. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
  13. ^ "The Church of England General Synod: List of Members for the Quinquennium 2015–2021". Peter Owen. Archived from the original on 26 September 2021. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
  14. ^ "The Church of England General Synod: List of Members for the Quinquennium 2021–2026". Peter Owen. Archived from the original on 28 October 2021. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
  15. ^ "Miranda Threlfall-Holmes" (PDF). General Synod election addresses 2021. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 May 2022. Retrieved 24 June 2023.
  16. ^ "News & Events (Section: Minutes of the 2007 AGM)". Women and the Church. Archived from the original on 29 December 2007. Retrieved 24 June 2023.
  17. ^ "Church archdeacon calls for 'anti-whiteness'". Retrieved 27 March 2024.