Cathedral to host ‘Three Deans’ conversation event to explore leadership and contested heritage

Join Chelmsford Cathedral on 27 February for an insightful evening of discussion between three deans delving into the theme of leadership and contested heritage.

This free event draws together Dean Jessica Martin (Chelmsford), Dean Mandy Ford (Bristol), and Dean Shelley-Ann Tenia (Trinidad & Tobago) in a shared conversation to explore together the issues and theology around contested heritage and what it means to lead a Cathedral in its mission, ministry and worship in the light of this.

The evening will start at 7pm in the Cathedral. The conversation will last for around 45 minutes with a short break to submit questions to the panel. Refreshments will be served from 8pm.

Meet the three deans panel

The Very Revd Mandy Ford

Mandy is the Dean of Bristol, a role which combines leadership of the cathedral with a place on the Bishop’s staff as the senior priest in the diocese. Mandy was brought up in Hong Kong in an army family and educated in Wiltshire. She studied fine art in London before training as a teacher in Exeter where she subsequently spent ten years teaching. After the call to ordination, Mandy studied theology in Oxford and began her ministry on a deprived estate in Leicester city centre, then moving to Southwark as Director of Discipleship and Ministry.

She spent a year running the Church of England’s Ministry Division before her current appointment. She is a member of the General Synod and involved in a number of national church initiatives, including the Living in Love and Faith programme. As Dean of Bristol, Mandy has led the Cathedral’s work on the legacy of slavery, including its successful exhibition All God’s Children and the adoption of a Racial Justice Strategy.

The Very Revd Dr Shelley-Ann Gaye Patrice Tenia

The Very Reverend Dr Shelley-Ann Tenia is the thirteenth Dean and Rector of the Holy Trinity Cathedral in the Diocese of Trinidad and Tobago. She is the first female to hold this position in the Diocese and in the Province of the West Indies. Reverend Tenia was ordained a Deacon in 2005 at the Virginia Seminary Chapel after successful completion of a Masters of Divinity from Virginia Theological Seminary and then ordained a priest in October 2006 at the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity, Port of Spain Trinidad.

Prior to ordination, she worked as a Social Worker with Credo Centre for Street Children on Nelson Street Port of Spain served as a Youth Minister at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Norfolk, Virginia, and worked as a Housing Counsellor with the Planning Council of Norfolk. 

The Very Revd Dr Jessica Martin 

Jessica began her ministry as Dean of Chelmsford in January 2025.  Jessica grew up in the Surrey commuter town of Woking.  She studied literature at university, which she later taught at Trinity College in Cambridge.  Following her ordination in 2004 she served as a priest alongside her life as a lecturer, until 2010 when she became the vicar of three country parishes in South Cambridgeshire. In 2016 she became a Canon of Ely Cathedral, with special responsibility for learning.

During 2023-4 she worked with Dr Victoria Avery of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, in providing prayer events and reflections at Ely Cathedral around the Museum’s exhibition ‘Black Atlantic: Power, People, Resistance’. This formed part of the Cathedral’s focus on the prevalence and evil of modern slavery.