The new Dean of Exeter Cathedral is to be Revd Arwen Mary Folkes, Downing Street has announced.
Revd Folkes, who is the first woman Dean in the Cathedral’s 970-year history, was born in Barnstaple in North Devon and was baptised in Bideford, before growing up at the Lizard Lighthouse in Cornwall where her father was one of the last live-in lighthouse keepers for Trinity House. She also spent part of her childhood at lighthouses on the North Devon coast.
She is currently Vicar of St Mary-the-Virgin, Eastbourne. She is married to William, and the couple have three children.
She said: “It seems I have been entrusted with a new lighthouse, and a rather bigger one this time!
“I was born in Barnstaple while my father was a lighthouse keeper on the North Devon coast, so coming to Exeter feels very much like coming home.
“I have always believed a church should be like a lighthouse: steady, watchful and ready to shine for anyone caught in a storm.
“Exeter Cathedral has been that kind of Christ-light for centuries, through many seasons, and I am honoured and humbled to be called as one of her ‘keepers’ by serving as the 72nd Dean.
“Most of all, I am looking forward to meeting, praying and serving with the people who already keep her light burning, the communities across Devon, and working hard to ensure the Cathedral can shine as the mother church for Exeter and the whole county.”
Before ordination, Arwen founded and ran Real Baby Milk, a Cornish social enterprise, and served as an elected district councillor in Cornwall.
She trained for ministry at Westcott House, Cambridge, gaining a BA (Hons) and MA from Durham University.
She served her curacy in Cornwall, at St Just in Roseland, after which she joined the Diocese of Chichester, serving in Seaford, before becoming Vicar of Eastbourne.
The Bishop of Exeter, the Right Revd Dr Mike Harrison, said: “I am delighted to welcome Arwen to Exeter Cathedral as our 72nd Dean and the historic first woman Dean of Exeter.
“Arwen has her roots firmly in the South West, and knows Cornwall and Devon well as a result of her coastal upbringing and working and living in the region for so many years.
“The only question will be how she has her jam and cream!
“She brings a wealth of experience from her working life, both in and out of the church, and understands how the Cathedral is called to be a place of hospitality, Christian witness, and outreach as well as a servant of the whole of the County.
“I look forward to working with Arwen on the Pray, Grow Serve 2035 vision of the Diocese and indeed to having Arwen and her family as near neighbours.”
The Right Revd Will Hazlewood, Bishop of Lewes and Acting Bishop of Chichester and a former parish priest in Devon, said: “We will be very sorry to see Arwen depart the Diocese, but are also delighted that the wider Church will benefit from her many gifts that have been so evident through her time with us.
“I know that Arwen will bring to the Cathedral and Diocese of Exeter the same faithfulness, evangelistic flare, compassion and strength of leadership that have characterised her ministry among us, and I assure her of our ongoing prayers as she prepares to take up this new exciting calling.”
The Very Revd Stephen Waine, Interim Dean of Exeter, said: “I am delighted that Arwen Folkes is to be the next Dean of Exeter, and I look forward to working with her as we begin to develop the next part of the story of Exeter Cathedral.
“She will bring new insights and an enthusiasm for ministry within and beyond the Cathedral, and I look forward to supporting her as she begins her ministry here and in the Diocese. The ministry of the Dean is central to the Cathedral’s life as a place of prayer and meeting for the people of the city, the county of Devon and the Diocese of Exeter, and Arwen brings experience, joy and enthusiasm for the gospel as she begins her ministry amongst us.”
Arwen will be installed as the new Dean at Exeter Cathedral on Sunday 9 May 2027.
On Tuesday 10 November she will be meeting staff at Exeter Cathedral, as well as congregants at Evensong at 5:30pm.
Please pray for Arwen and her family as they prepare to join the communities of Exeter Cathedral and the Diocese of Exeter in 2027.
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For further information, please contact Jacob Hilton, Marketing Manager for Exeter Cathedral ([email protected]) and Chloe Axford, Director of Communications for the Diocese of Exeter ([email protected]). For any urgent queries, please call Chloe Axford on 07889 523776.
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Biography of The Revd Arwen Mary Folkes
Arwen was born in Barnstaple and spent the first nine years of her life in Cornwall where her father was the light-house keeper at Lizard Point and on the North Devon Coast. She later spent time working and living in Truro and North Cornwall.
Arwen is married to William, and the couple have three children.
It was while bringing up her family in North Cornwall that she also served as a District Councillor and set up the Cornish Social Enterprise ‘Real Baby Milk’.
Reflecting on her path, Arwen feels that all these roles prepared the ground for her true vocation to emerge. “I increasingly became aware that I was participating with a creator God in having children which led me to re-examine the faith of my childhood with conviction. The sacraments drew me back in fully and as the call to priesthood emerged, I realised that my working-life passion for building and supporting communities, had provided a set of skills that could serve the church in wonderful ways. In Christ, nothing is wasted”.
The call to Christian ministry first led Arwen to spend two years studying theology part-time with the Readers in the Diocese of Truro and then take up a full-time place for three years at Westcott House Theological College in Cambridge. Arwen’s main interests are Biblical studies, philosophical theology (especially Gregory of Nyssa and Augustine of Hippo), Christian education, and homiletics in the rhetorical traditions.
Arwen gained a BA (Hons) and MA from Durham University and is currently studying Gregory of Nyssa’s use of rhetoric under the supervision of Professor John Behr.
She served her title at St. Just in Roseland and St. Mawes, in the Diocese of Truro, and was ordained priest in 2017.
While in Truro she taught modules in Christian theology for Truro Cathedral and Biblical Hermeneutics for ordinands with (what was) the South-West Ministry Training Course (now Spiritus College).
In 2019, Arwen was appointed Rector of St. Peter’s East Blatchington and St. Andrew’s, Bishopstone, in the Diocese of Chichester, before taking up her current role as the Vicar of Eastbourne, at St Mary the Virgin, in 2024. During her time in Chichester she has served on General Synod, chaired the Vacancy-in-See committee, held a teaching ministry for both lay and ordained people, served as the Bishops’ liturgical chaplain and as a Bishop’s Advisor and Trainer on the sacrament of reconciliation.