Miranda Threlfall-Holmes
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Miranda Threlfall-Holmes | |
|---|---|
| Archdeacon of Liverpool | |
| Church | Church of England |
| Diocese | Diocese of Liverpool |
| In office | September 2023 to present |
| Predecessor | Mike McGurk |
| Other posts | Team Rector, St Luke-in-the-City, Liverpool (2017–2023) |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 2003 (deacon); 2004 (priest) by Martin Wharton (both) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1973 (age 51–52) |
| Nationality | British |
| Denomination | Anglican |
| Spouse | Phil |
| Children | three |
| Profession | church historian; theologian; writer |
| Alma mater | Christ's College, Cambridge |
Miranda Threlfall-Holmes (born 1973)[1] is an Anglican priest who has been the Archdeacon of Liverpool since 2023.[2]
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
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
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[update], 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]
