LLANDAFF CATHEDRAL is to have a latest Dean, it was announced on Sunday. The news comes only one week after the current Dean, the Very Revd Richard Peers, announced his retirement (News, 3 April).
The Vicar of St Giles’s, Wrexham, Canon Jason Bray, is to be his successor, and is anticipated to take up the post this summer.
Originally from Merthyr Tydfil, on the southern fringe of the Brecon Beacons, Canon Bray trained for ordination at Westcott House before completing a Ph.D. in theology on the University of Cambridge.
He has spent the entire of his ordained ministry within the Church in Wales, and is a Canon of St Asaph Cathedral. In 2021, he published a book about his experience in deliverance ministry, subtitled “on a regular basis investigations into the supernatural by an Anglican priest” (Books, 11 June 2021). He has been Vicar of St Giles’s since 2015. He is a Benedictine oblate and a facilitator for St Padarn’s Theology for Life programme.
Dean Peers’s retirement was announced throughout the Easter Day services in Llandaff Cathedral. In a letter to the Bishop of Llandaff, the Rt Revd Mary Stallard, which was read to the congregation, he referred to a criticism which had been made about him under the Clergy Discipline Measure (CDM) in relation to his time as Sub-Dean of Christ Church, Oxford.
He was cleared of charges that he had made disparaging and inappropriate remarks concerning the former Dean of Christ Church, Dr Martyn Percy, the tribunal describing Dean Peers as an “impressive and truthful witness” (News, 26 March).
