New Dean for King’s.

Not many churches, chapels or even cathedrals can boast of a queue of over 300 people patiently waiting for a Friday evensong but that is what a CEN contributor found when he visited King’s College, Cambridge, last week in the company of an astounded non-Christian friend. The new Dean of King’s, Canon Stephen Cherry, can take heart from this. Cherry is a canon of Durham Cathedral and Director of Ministerial Support for the Diocese but he is better known in the wider church as the author of such works as ‘Beyond Busyness: Time Wisdom for Minstry’, ‘Barefoot Disciple’ and ‘Healing Agony’. Although the choir at King’s and the organist, Stephen Cleobury, have a world-wide reputation, the electronic amplification system could do with some upgrading. King’s has not always been an easy place to minister. One dean is supposed to have committed suicide because he had difficulty dealing with the sceptical dons and another recently took his own life because it is thought he was worried about allegations of child abuse. Cherry who has a degree in psychology as well as theology and who served as a chaplain at King’s twenty years’ ago should be well equipped to meet the challenges. His immediate predecessor, who came to King’s in difficult circumstances in 2009, has done an excellent job and is going back to his old college, Trinity Hall, to serve as Master. Not far away from King’s, and by way of a contrast, is the chapel of Robinson College. It’s surprising to find such a fine building with John Piper windows serving as chapel for a college that opened in the 1980s. Robinson chapel is inter-denominational. When the CEN contributor visited it was closed for exams so there was no chance to say prayers there for Robinson’s most distinguished alumnus, the Deputy Prime Minister, who certainly needs prayers at the present time (even though he is an atheist)