Twelve women and men will be ordained Deacon by the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, in the course of five services in York Minster between Friday 25th and Sunday 27th September 2020.
The twelve, who would have been ordained in July this year but for the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, have been serving as Licenced Lay Ministers in the parishes within the Diocese of York in which they will continue to serve as Curates once they have been ordained.
The five services replace the customary single service in the Nave of York Minster, to enable the closest family and friends of the two or three candidates in each service to attend within the current guidelines for social distancing and maximum numbers.
Due to the COVID restrictions only those invited may attend; however, the core of each service will be live-streamed on Facebook about 30 minutes from the start at www.facebook.com/DioceseOfYork (no Facebook login required), and still photographs will be freely available afterwards for downloading and publication at www.flickr.com/photos/DioceseofYork/albums.