…Vann, made history in 1994 as one of the first women ordained as priests in England and become the United Kingdom’s first female archbishop, and notably, the first openly gay.
LONDON – The iNews Times reports that the Most Reverend Cherry Vann, newly appointed Archbishop of Wales, has offered a rare and deeply personal reflection on the decades she spent concealing her sexuality while serving in the Anglican Church, declaring that gay marriage in church is no longer a matter of if, but when.
Vann, 66, made history in 1994 as one of the first women ordained as priests in England and has now become the United Kingdom’s first female archbishop, and notably, the first openly gay, partnered bishop to lead as a primate within the global Anglican Communion.
In an interview with The Guardian UK, published Sunday, the Archbishop detailed the emotional toll of living a dual life while navigating a church historically resistant to open expressions of same-sex relationships among clergy.
“Without the strong belief that God had called me to the priesthood, I would not have survived,” she said, reflecting on years spent in quiet tension between her personal truth and public role. “It happens that I’ve lived in a time that’s meant I’m a trailblazer, but I’m not a campaigner. I seek to be true to what I think God’s asking of me.”
Raised in a devout household in Whetstone, Leicestershire, Vann studied music at the Royal College of Music before entering theological college in 1986. She was ordained in 1994 and rose through the ranks in the Manchester diocese, eventually becoming Archdeacon of Rochdale in 2008. In 2020, she was appointed Bishop of Monmouth and has served in the Church in Wales since then –a setting she describes as more accepting than the Church of England.
“In England, Wendy had to stay upstairs if I had a meeting in the house,” she recounted, referencing her long-time partner, Wendy Diamond. “We kept our relationship secret for years because I worried about waking up and finding myself outed on the front page of a newspaper. Now, Wendy joins me everywhere, it’s just normal.”
Vann publicly acknowledged her civil partnership upon her episcopal appointment five years ago, a step that she says brought both relief and renewed purpose. Her relationship with Diamond spans more than three decades.
The Archbishop also addressed the broader resistance she faced, not just as a gay woman but as a woman, full stop. “You can hide your sexuality up to a point, but you can’t hide being a woman,” she said. “There was a lot of nastiness; the men were angry. They felt betrayed.”
She recalled tense dialogues in the 1990s with male clergy opposed to female ordination. “It was awful,” she admitted. “But we stuck at it.”
Now, as Archbishop of Wales, Vann is preaching reconciliation, not uniformity in the face of deeply entrenched divisions over sexuality and gender in the Church. “We can vehemently disagree about something, but we can still love one another in Christ and recognise one another as children of God,” she said.
Though she does not personally seek a church wedding, she believes the Church’s blessing of same-sex marriages is inevitable.
“There are people who are very opposed, and as a leader, I have to honour their position, which is theologically grounded,” she said. “It isn’t my job to push something through that would alienate a good proportion of clergy. But gay marriage in church is inevitable – the question is when.”
Her appointment is widely seen as a watershed moment, but Vann remains grounded. “I’m not out there waving a banner,” she said. “But I know what it means to walk with integrity – and to be seen.”
