The Revd Canon Shanthi Thompson
Revd. Canon Shanthi Thompson trained for ministry at Cranmer Hall in Durham, was ordained in 2009 and served her curacy in the Kirkby Lonsdale Ministry Team. She served as Priest in Charge in Staveley, Ings and Kentmere from 2013 and was also licensed as Assistant Priest to Bowness, Troutbeck and Windermere in December 2019. Shanthi was collated and installed as an Honorary Canon of Carlisle Cathedral in 2020.
Shanthi was delighted to appointed as the first female Vicar of Holy Trinity Kendal in 2021 and is the first person from an ethnic minority to serve in this role. She seeks to lead the church into a deeper relationship with Jesus and work with others to reach out to our community with the message and love of Jesus.
The Revd Rob McLellan
The Revd Ashley Henderson
Ashley was ordained in 2005, but has a long connection with the church as his father and grandfather were both members of the choir here.
Married to Janet (church administrator), with 2 sons Matthew and Robert, he enjoys walking the dog, reading crime novels, cooking, gardening and sport. He has been a Cub Scout leader for 40 years and lists France and Herm Island as his favourite holiday destinations.
Ashley oversees the pastoral work and welcome brief for the church, and has a particular passion for funerals and bereavement ministry.
The Revd Anne Underwood
The Revd Dr Michael Hunter
After six year’s research in metallurgy and ordination training, Michael helped to train clergy in Uganda and then worked in parishes in Wolverhampton and Sheffield. Retirement brought him and Linda to Kendal in 2012 and he now spends a couple of months each year teaching in Burundi. He loves to see people thinking and growing in their faith and has a particular interest in the parish’s teaching ministry and its involvement in world mission: he runs occasional sessions so people can ‘dip their toes’ into the Old Testament. Volunteering at Manna House, walking, playing the trumpet, table tennis and skyping with their two adult daughters keep him well occupied.
The Revd Prof Ian James
Ian spent most of his working life as a lecturer at the University of Reading. He was ordained as a Self-Supporting Minister in 2002 and following his retirement from the University, became Priest in Charge of four tiny parishes in West Cumbria. After his second retirement in 2015, he and his late wife Mary moved to Kendal where they joined the congregation at Kendal Parish Church. As well as providing occasional cover for a number of local churches when they are short of a priest, Ian is also currently Carlisle Diocesan Environment Advisor. His role there is to encourage the Church to engage with the Fifth Mark of Mission, “to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth”, and to help its people explore how they can be part of that mission. When he is not doing the garden, Ian plays music, paints pictures and works on his model railway.
The Revd Clive Duxbury
Clive is married to Trish, they live in Holme and travel to KPC because they ‘love the fellowship at Holy Trinity’. They have three children.
For many years Clive served in parish ministry, in different locations. During that time, he was also involved in both part-time and full-time Prison Chaplaincy service. Part of those responsibilities being co-ordinator for the prison Staff Care Team.
Both enjoy bird watching, walking and reading. They have remarked that living in South Lakes is a wonderful location for doing the things they both enjoy.
Their joy, through the years, has been to see folk come to faith and to grow in that same faith.
The Revd Howard Smith
Norma Bates
Philip Heyes
Philip was licensed as Lay Reader at Holy Trinity, Kendal in 2012, having moved here from Wigan. He has been a Reader at St Michael’s in Wigan since 1974. He is now “Reader Emeritus” at St Michael’s and still helps there occasionally with the services.
Philip was born in Bolton and is a retired solicitor. He was first admitted as a reader in the Manchester Diocese in 1968.
Philip enjoys being part of the ministry team which seeks to welcome people of different Christian traditions. He hopes that the spiritual warmth of Holy Trinity will help enrich their faith and give them cause for hope in the Gospel message.
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Linda Hunter
Linda is a retired horticulturist who can be found on her allotment or in various gardens when she is not playing cello in an orchestra or hillwalking. At KPC she is a Reader, leading and preaching but also singing in the choir, playing in the music group and helping encourage World Mission. Her faith impacts all of her life. She knows God is with her helping a child in school or sharing with someone how she has been given peace (over the leeks!). Exploring what the Bible teaches and how it applies to daily life in Home Group (with lots of laughter) is also important!
Anita Peat
I was brought up Windermere and Troutbeck Bridge, and spent much of my school years involved in music, both in and out of church, little realising that this involvement in church music had started to shape my faith. I continued to study music at university. With so many public recitals and concerts in the Minster and Ripon Cathedral I felt truly at home within those walls and it was an absolute joy being there. With holiday jobs in many of the businesses in Bowness and beyond, I was becoming immersed in our local tourism industry which fired my passion for all things tourism and later, a career within that. With two grown up children each forging their own ways, we have moved around a fair bit and had the privilege to worship in a variety of contexts. I have lived in Kendal, worked for South Lakes Housing and worshipped at KPC for about 8 years and enjoy singing in the choir and playing in the music group. I am also a member of the PCC. Training as a Reader equipped me to share God’s word further with his people and to encourage and enable others to be Disciples of Christ.
Janet Henderson
Janet joined the team in September 2017, having spent the previous 35 years as a librarian and finds the challenges of being an office administrator very rewarding. Married to Ashley (Assistant Priest) and with a church background (her late father being a lay reader for 57 years and a member of general synod), she has worshipped at the Parish Church since 1976.
Her duties include dealing with the day-to-day finances, producing the weekly handout, taking bookings for the Parish Hall, updating the website, answering telephone calls and email enquiries, plus other general office duties.
In her spare time she enjoys walking the dog, tracing the family tree, reading, jigsaws, gardening and listening to classical music.
Diane Letheren
Born and raised in Barnsley, Diane now lives near Kendal with her husband who have two grown up children. She has worked in the office since November 2011 and enjoys the diversity that comes with the job! Amongst a variety of other things, Diane helps to organise the Annual Charity Christmas Tree Festival. In her spare time she enjoys cycling and racing many miles indoors with other people from around the world. I know - it sounds bonkers!
Janet Thompson
Janet came to live in South Lakeland some 50 years ago and now lives in one of the villages south of Kendal. Her Christian Faith has always been important and during these years she has been actively involved in 3 Anglican Churches, as a PCC member , singing in choirs and has done a variety of other roles, including running a ‘Fish Club’ for children, being a Churchwarden for 8 years. She is presently a member of the PCC at Holy Trinity, KPC and on Friends’ Committee of both KPC and Rydal Hall.
Since retiring early from teaching Janet has enjoyed having time to travel with her husband, spending time with friends and seeing her family, especially two young grandchildren, who all live in the south. Walking and music have been two of her main joys. Apart from various church based activities, she has been involved in numerous voluntary activities. She counts two of the most worthwhile as working with prisoners on the Restorative Justice programme of the Prison Fellowship, and with older people whilst being a Trustee of a Quaker Sheltered Housing Scheme.
In all the various threads of her life people have always been important. “ Our Lord taught us that every person is valued, loved and precious. ‘Safeguarding’ must therefore be at the heart of our faith” . She is pleased to be able to help in this role at Holy Trinity, KPC.
Andy Plowman
Andy is a retired actuary and spent much of his career in London. As well as playing for Sunday services he organises our fortnightly Friday lunchtime concerts and has recorded here with BBC ‘Songs of Praise’. Andy is concert accompanist for around ten choirs in Lancaster and Cumbria and has played at cathedrals around the UK, including a dozen weeks in residence at venues such as Durham, Salisbury and York Minster.
Andy believes that life is about knowing and enjoying the love and companionship of God in every circumstance. In his spare time he works with a number of faith based charities, plays fun songs at a lunch club for friends living with dementia, and tries to keep up with his nine grandchildren.
Jonathan Bielby
Joan Carnaffin
Joan enjoys helping out at the Baptisms, Messy Church and Toddler Group and is also one of the many Welcomers to the church.
Dick Forsyth
Dick arrived in Kendal in 1987 to teach at Queen Katherine School, intending to move on after a while but never did! He finally retired from the school in 2015 and currently works as a part-time gardener.
He has been involved in KPC life over all those years in various capacities, more actively so since retirement, and rose to the dizzying heights (?) of becoming a Warden in 2019.
Currently he is involved in developing Prayer within our community of faith, attempting to minimise water ingress to the building and singing in the choir. He is also trying to make the churchyard less of a ‘green desert’.
He is very much of the view that God has by no means finished with any of us.
Ann West
Ann is a born and bred Cumbrian who has lived ‘out of county’ for most of her life but returned ‘home’ to finish her working life in Barrow, her birth town. Married to John, a Midlander, who feels very much at home in Cumbria.
Work for Ann has been 40 years plus with the NHS. Having the privilege of working with children and their families, in hospital and at home, often in very difficult circumstances. Children can teach us so much about life, humility, determination and acceptance of what life gives us.
Although they have moved around quite a lot with John’s work they did spend a large part of their life on the Isle of Wight where they brought up their three children in the beautiful surroundings, having the freedom that only island life can afford.
After retirement Ann and John moved to Kendal, as it gave them easy access to the motorway to enable them to get away easily in their newly acquired motorhome for their many visits to Scotland and Hampshire to visit the six grandchildren who were now a big and important part of their lives. An easy and enjoyable life, with little responsibility.
As usual other forces were in charge. They settled into life at KPC and very soon became involved in the background, but nevertheless important, work that goes on – all starting with the backlash of Storm Desmond. All progressing to Ann accepting the role of Church Warden, not what she thought she would be doing at this moment in time!
Beverley Moore
I have always believed that God’s call on my life is to show the love of Jesus to as many people in as many ways as I can, but particularly to those who are vulnerable and marginalized in our society.
My background is one of nursing and I am able to use some of those skills within the context of Anna Chaplaincy, not in a physical way but in a caring, compassionate way, by listening, hearing people’s stories, being alongside and allowing them time and space to communicate whatever they wish to bring to God. I am sure that in this season of my life the best way I can serve Him is by helping older people know how much they are loved and valued in His Kingdom. I am passionate about this work and very excited by all the opportunities the Lord is opening up for us. I am also an Ambassador for the Alzheimer’s Society and able to offer Dementia Friends Awareness Sessions raising the issues of dementia to many people. I am also a wife to Graeme, a mum to Matthew, Joshua and Paige and Grandma to Brody, Peyton, Seth and Hugo. I enjoy reading with a fondness for “thrillers” and my favourite type of holiday is cruising.
