The next Chief Executive Officer of Lichfield Diocese is to be Mrs Sam Rushton, the Rt Revd Dr Michael Ipgrave, Bishop of Lichfield, has announced.
After a career in retail banking and most recently, in the leadership team of the Diocese of York, she brings to Lichfield the skills that will help maintain and develop the culture of teamworking and collaboration among diocesan staff and structures. This will support parishes in their role as local places of encounter with Christian faith as the whole diocese engages with making real the diocese’s soon to be launched strategy for 2025-2030 in 421 parishes in The Black Country, Staffordshire and North Shropshire.
Mrs Rushton who will be based at St Mary’s House next to the cathedral, is returning to Lichfield, having grown up on a local farm, now partly under the M6 Toll road. She went to school in Lichfield, holding the distinction of being The Friary School’s first female Head Prefect, before going to Oxford University.
Not a churchgoer, it was the Friary School’s carol service in Lichfield Cathedral which was her first opportunity to speak in church: reading the Old Testament. She still recalls it clearly: ‘The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.’ (Isaiah 11:6, NIV, UK).
Mrs Rushton entered the banking industry as a graduate trainee with Lloyds Bank, and then spent 10 years in strategy and planning, and programme management. During her career in Lloyds Bank she undertook a number of strategic reviews at Board level, including for Cheltenham and Gloucester, TSB Scotland and Lloyds Bank International, based in Geneva. She led two major change programmes before leaving in 2002 to train for ordained ministry.
Ten years before leaving banking, Mrs Rushton found Christian faith when she and her husband, Peter, took their son for baptism. Attending a church where the Vicar was committed to nurture and growth, her new-found faith deepened, and her vocation was kindled through learning and service. Her ministry has since focused on enabling and equipping ‘ordinary parish ministry’
Mrs Rushton observes: “When it is working well, it is anything but ordinary,” adding:
“As diocesan CEO I want to make it possible for every parish to serve their local community effectively and with joy, and to bring the Kingdom of God a step closer in their local place every day. It is a joy to be returning to Lichfield and I look forward to working with the staff at St Mary’s House whose reputation precedes them. I shall miss North Yorkshire, but it feels somehow fitting to be following in the footsteps of St Chad who journeyed from Lastingham on the edge of the North York Moors to Lichfield!”
Ordained in 2005 after studying at Trinity Theological College, Bristol, she served her curacy in Bristol, then became Diocesan Adviser for Licensed Ministry. In 2015, she became an Archdeacon in York Diocese, serving in Cleveland and then York as well as spending a year as Director of Strategic Transformation. She comments:
“It was always my intention to be a parish priest but God obviously had other ideas, using the leadership gifts and experience gained in one large organisation committed to serving local communities to serve his church in similar ways. God always has a better plan for us than we could imagine for ourselves. He is the God of surprises.
The Rt Revd Dr Michael Ipgrave, Bishop of Lichfield, said:
“Sam commended herself to us with her career equally divided between banking and diocesan leadership, her passion for parishes and her grasp of what it takes to bring about effective change. I commend her to our parishes, communities and equally our committees as someone they can do business with. They will more often than not find that they are on the same side.”
The Most Revd Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York said:
“The Diocese of Lichfield has made an inspired appointment of Sam Rushton as its new CEO. In the Diocese of York we have known Sam as someone who brings wisdom and experience from inside and outside the church with an analytical mind and a warm heart. So much of our diocesan strategy is down to Sam. As Sam finds her feet in Lichfield, we will be praying for her and Peter too, whose work and presence in training and supporting lay ministry has been a blessing to us. We will miss her but will continue to work through the themes we have discerned with her help, seeking still to live Christ’s story here in York. Sam, you go with our blessing and our love, and our thanks for all you have been to us.”
The Chair of Lichfield Diocesan Board of Finance, David Wright, said:
“Mrs Rushton’s broad experience of financial institutions and the church offer great confidence that she can steer a path between financial prudence and making sure that available resources support growing mission and ministry.”
Mrs Rushton enjoys reading crime fiction in whatever spare time there is. Her husband Peter is a Reader (Licensed Lay Minister) in York Diocese where he is also Deputy Warden of Readers and a theological tutor. They have two grown-up sons. She and Peter look forward to serving a local church: “It will be a joy to be worshipping and serving together in a rooted community of faith again. The local church is where the heart of Christ beats strongest.”
She will take up her post at the end of April.