Getting to know you is the top priority for the new Bishop of Reading.

Last month, it was announced that the Revd Canon Mary Gregory is to leave her role as Canon for the Arts and Reconciliation at Coventry Cathedral to succeed the Rt Revd Olivia Graham, who stepped down earlier this year.

A member of the clergy since 2005, she served in dioceses in Sheffield and Leicester after a career in the prison service, including serving as governor of Wakefield and Moorland prisons.

Mary will be installed into her new role in the spring of next year.

“I’ve moved quite a lot in my working life, and I always love getting to know a new area,” she says. "I’m naturally very curious and enjoy finding out what there is to see and getting to know new people. It’s a really important job taking care of the people of Berkshire, getting to know them and serving them. This is a completely fresh patch for me, and I hope that will be an advantage in some ways because I’ll be coming with a fresh pair of eyes, and ready to listen to what people have to tell me without any preconceptions on my part.”

She believes that one of the attractions is the makeup of the area: while much of Reading is very urban, there are also areas that are countryside and in use for agriculture. This mirrors her life growing up in rural Leicestershire in addition to her early ministries.


“I have a love of the countryside and an understanding of it to a point. On the other hand, being in Coventry, I’ve lived in a very urban context and really enjoyed the diversity and the opportunity to work with people of different faiths,” she explains. “There have been various points of connection. While I don’t know Berkshire, I have had experiences that might be relevant “I’ve always been drawn to people on the edges of things, people who are held outside of the centre if you like. I was really impressed that there are a lot of charities at work in the area, I can really see myself supporting and contributing to that work.”


During her fact-finding sessions, she spent time with the people she would work with, and says she was impressed with their talent, dedication and warmth.

“This is a job that you can’t do in isolation, you have to do it with other people,” she says, reflecting also on the journey that the Church has been on since accepting women to the priesthood in the early 1990s. It’s lovely to be following in Bishop Olivia’s footsteps and building on the amazing work she did,” Mary says.“I visited the house where she lived, which is where I’m going to live, and she had left a letter in her desk drawer for whoever the next Bishop of Reading was going to be, which was really nice."

Diversity within the Church is another subject close to the heart of the new appointee:

“I obviously really do embrace the fact that women can minister in the Church. I want to encourage more women in ministry and encourage greater diversity in other ways, to see global majority heritage people better represented within the Church of England. I think there is still quite a bit of work to do on diversity. I am absolutely convinced that God welcomes everyone, and that’s a really, really important part of the message I want to bring to my role as Bishop of Reading. I want to demonstrate by my own responses and what I say that God’s love is just unconditional. It’s exciting where churches are able to express that really clearly.”

The recent Census showed that four in 10 of Berkshire’s population said they were Christians, while a third said they had no faith at all. Mary says it presents the Church with an interesting challenge and an opportunity.


“How can I communicate the faith I hold really dearly to people who haven’t got a background in the Christian faith, or who may not have an interest in it? How do I make it relevant to people and help them make connections with their own life and experience?” she asks. “From my point of view, I am absolutely sure the Christian story is one that is still compelling today, but we haven’t told it in a way that connects with people. I’m excited to think about what will help us tell our story in a way that people want to say, ‘Tell me more’.


“The world has changed a lot since I was growing up, we can’t just rely on people turning up on Sundays, so what can we do in the week? It’s not just about the church building, what can we do in the pub? I’ve already been invited to do something in a Reading pub and, of course, I’ve said yes. It’s about being enterprising and creative. The story doesn’t change, the core message doesn’t change, but how we tell it has to. That’s not to jettison beautiful, traditional worship. We can still have that, but we must diversify as well. We must have other things which might reach a different generation.”


Mary is looking forward to starting her new ministry. She will lead Christmas services at Coventry while packing, leaving in the early spring before coming to Reading, which is part of the Diocese of Oxford.


“It’s a huge privilege to be coming here,” she says. “The way I understand being a bishop is about serving. I know we wear these beautiful robes which might make us stand out and look important in particular ways, but I’m there to serve. I’m really looking forward to it, and I want people to know I will always give my very best. I am looking forward to getting to know people and loving them.”