SALISBURY Cathedral is to have four new canons following an invitation from the Bishop of Salisbury, the Right Reverend Nicholas Holtam.

They will be installed at Evensong on Wednesday, October 15, when they will also join the cathedral’s College of Canons, which aims to promote the cathedral in the wider diocesan and civic life in Dorset and other areas.

The new canons are Rev Vanessa Herrick, Rev Jean de Garis, and Revd Gerald Osborne, who are to be appointed Non Residentiary Canons and Michael A Keller, a Sarum Canon.

The Rev Herrick has been the rector of Wimborne Minster since 2012.

She has served on the staff of two cathedrals and has over thirty years’ experience as a lay person, clergy spouse, lay reader and ordained minister.

Rev Jean de Garis was ordained in the Anglican Church in 1993 and appointed Priest in Charge of Lytchett Minster and Upton in 1998.

He has been rural dean of Poole since 2009.

Rev Gerald Osborne was ordained in 1999 under the pilot diocesan OLM scheme and is a trustee of the charity ‘Send a Cow’, which uses livestock and training to help African smallholders to lift themselves out of poverty.

The Dean of Salisbury, the Very Rev June Osborne, said “We are so pleased to welcome Vanessa, Jean, Gerald and Michael to our College of Canons. “Between them they will bring us insights into their specialist areas and help our communities with their expert advice and opinions. We are so grateful to have such a variety of skills and talent in the College and we thank all existing Canons too for the service they provide to the cathedral.”