Last night, the Reverend Gareth Powell, Secretary of the Methodist Conference, was installed as an Honorary Canon of St Paul’s Cathedral.

The Bishop of London prayed for him and conferred upon him the Honorary Canonry. Canon Powell, in accepting the appointment said he would, “do all in my power to support and commend the Christian mission of this Diocese of London and its Cathedral Church.”  The Bishop then asked the Dean, the Very Revd David Ison, to install Canon Powell.

The Reverend Gareth Powell was appointed as the Secretary of the Methodist Conference in July 2015, having served as the Assistant Secretary since 2011. He read theology at Westminster College, Oxford and then undertook ministerial training at The Queen’s College, Birmingham and attended the Graduate School of Ecumenical Studies, The University of Geneva.

Prior to his appointment as Assistant Secretary, he served in circuit and chaplaincy appointments in Coventry and Cardiff, and has also served as the Ecumenical Officer of the Methodist Church in Wales and Co-Chair of the Methodist Anglican Panel for Mission and Unity, Co-Secretary of the International Anglican Methodist Panel on Unity and Mission. He was for ten years a member of the British Methodist-Catholica relations Committee.

Others present included Lord Griffiths, former President of the Methodist Conference, the Canon Michael Hampel, Canon in Residence at St. Paul’s Cathedral  and colleagues, friends and family of Canon Powell.