Anna Morrell writes for the Church in Wales:
A vicar who worked as an adviser on a popular television drama series is to oversee the training of all licensed ministers in the Church in Wales.
The Rev. Canon Dr. Manon Ceridwen James, who was the adviser for S4C’s drama Parch, about a woman vicar in rural Wales, is taking on a senior role at St. Padarn’s Institute, the training arm of the Church in Wales. She will be Director of Formation for Licensed Ministry and will join the team in September.
Her new role will be to lead the training and education of all licensed ministers. This includes those preparing for the newer lay ministries of evangelist, pioneer, youth and children’s and pastor, as well as Readers and those preparing for ordination, stipendiary and self-supporting.
Manon is currently the Director of Ministry in the Diocese of St Asaph. Brought up in Nefyn on the Llŷn Peninsula, she graduated from the Polytechnic of Wales and Selwyn College, Cambridge, before being ordained in 1994. Since then, she has served in rural ministry in North Wales — as a Curate in Llandudno, Vicar in Bethesda (Glanogwen), Llanllechid, Mynydd Llandygai and later Pentir, and Rector of Llanddulas and Llysfaen. Alongside this she has served as Director of Ordinands/Vocations, as Director of Lifelong Learning, St. Asaph Tutor for St. Michael’s College, and Director of Exploring Faith. The University of Wales press has recently published her book, Women, Identity, and Religion in Wales.
In 2015 Manon was recruited as an adviser for Parch by the programme’s writer, Fflur Dafydd. The series, which followed rural vicar Myfanwy, ran for three years and concluded in April.
