The Very Rev’d Dr Jessica Martin

The Dean of Chelmsford

Jessica Martin 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. Her southern most church was just two hundred yards away from the Essex border.  Gradually taking on other responsibilities, Jessica served on the Bishop of Ely’s senior staff and contributed to the Church of England’s ongoing reflections on sexuality.  In 2016 she became a Canon of Ely Cathedral, with special responsibility for learning. During 2024 she was one of the two theological advisers to the bishops of the Church of England.  She became Dean of Chelmsford in January 2025.

She has written two religious books (as well as some academic ones): Holiness and Desire, which is about sacred and profane loves and how they fit together and which was longlisted for the Michael Ramsey Prize, and The Eucharist in Four Dimensions, about the way that Holy Communion uses place and space and time.  

She plays the oboe and the piano, and is married to the writer Francis Spufford. She has two daughters, Stella and Theodora.