Parish welcomes new priest (From Gazette & Herald)

Parish welcomes new priest

1:57pm Wednesday 1st February 2012 in News

A FORMER psychiatric nurse who had a major change in career and went into the ministry has become the new priest-in-charge of the moorland parish around Kirkbymoorside.

The Rev Mark Brosnan has moved from Hadleigh in Essex to the market town. As well as being the minister for All Saints’ Church, his parish will include the villages of Farndale, Bransdale, Fadmoor, Gillamoor and Great Edstone.

Mr Brosnan has been in the ministry for 16 years, having previously been a psychiatric nurse, specialising in dementia patients.

He decided to go into the ministry full-time after working part-time as a priest while also being a nurse in Ipswich.

Ordained at Bury St Edmunds Cathedral, Mr Brosnan started his ministry in Suffolk. He then moved to Colchester and Mersea Island, before taking his next parish at Hadleigh near Southend.

He and his wife, Tania, have four daughters, Emma, 25, Verity, 23, Rebecca, 22, and Grace, 20.

“My wife and I are both great walkers so we do know the Dales and the North York Moors having spent holidays there, as well as Whitby and York,” said Mr Brosnan.

He lists his other hobbies as camping, enjoying real ale, reading and travelling.

Mr Brosnan was licensed at a special service in All Saints’, which has been without a minister for two years, by the Bishop of Whitby, the Rt Rev Martin Warner, last Saturday.