On Sunday 29th June at 4pm seven new deacons will be ordained at Coventry Cathedral by The Bishop of Coventry, the Right Reverend Sophie Jelley. The new deacons have undertaken a course of study and training, and following their ordination they will serve as curates (assistant ministers) while their training continues.
Damares Gomes-Morris
Dâmares was born in Brazil and raised in Portugal, where she began ministry at the age of 13 through a worship collective that ministered in local churches and across various nations. Over nearly a decade, she witnessed countless young lives transformed by the power of God through worship, prayer, and the work of the Holy Spirit. This experience ignited in her a deep passion to see the Gospel impact a generation.
After moving to England, Dâmares later served as both a Worship Pastor and Creative Pastor, roles in which she led teams, discipled young leaders, and used music and digital medial as powerful tools to communicate the Gospel. She has been writing and releasing her own music for over ten years, reaching thousands globally with the message of God's hope and love.
Upon joining the Church of England, Damares sensed a clear calling to ordained ministry. Her vision is to raise up leaders and form disciples of Jesus who are passionate about seeing the next generation encounter God. She is especially passionate about engaging young adults through preaching and the creative arts as a way of awakening hearts and pointing them to Christ.
She is married to Jacob, who shares her heart for the next generation and is a constant support in life and ministry.
Liz Goodwin
Liz was due to be ordained deacon last June however this didn’t go ahead due to the early arrival of her little girl. She was on maternity leave until April, at which point she started her curacy at St Martins in the Fields, Finham. Liz moved to Cheylesmore in January, prior to this Liz lived in Atherstone and was on placement at Holy Trinity Attleborough, near Nuneaton. She enjoyed her time in North Warwickshire but has found returning to Coventry has brought with it a feeling of “coming home”. Liz has received a warm welcome from the church family at St Martins and is excited to see how her curacy at St Martins will continue to develop after being ordained deacon.
Prior to starting training Liz worked as an Occupational Therapist for 10 years, the majority of this time was spent working with people who had had strokes and supporting their rehabilitation and return to independence. This was her vocation for a season and found it difficult to come to terms with God calling her into a new vocation of becoming a priest. Over the last two years she has found peace with laying down her previous vocation and looks forward to seeing how God will use the skills she gained from that period in her future ministry.
Liz has two children, a four-year-old who is due to start school in September at one of the schools in the parish and an almost one-year-old She loves watching her eldest becoming more interested in Jesus and has appreciated the opportunity to experience the highlights and difficulties of being parent to a young child in church. She hopes this will help her future ministry, in particular supporting families in church.
Dave Jones
Born in Hawaii to missionary parents – Dave has lived most of his life in Nuneaton and Bedworth….go figure!
He has an amazing wife, Jet Jones, who works for Coventry Diocese and they have two lovely kids that he is deeply proud of, Aaron who is 18 and Lilly who is 21.
Feeling called to church ministry Dave began as a secondary school teacher before working and serving in the Pentecostal Assemblies of God Church in Bedworth for over 20 years. Having recently responded to God’s call into the Anglian Church, Dave has had the privilege of serving as part of the team at Bedworth Parish Church with the Revd Dave and the Revd Ann Poultney. It’s been a wonderful season of learning and growing as the church has seen God faithfulness and fruitfulness in the church and wider community.
Dave is excited about being called back to his Nuneaton roots in Weddington where he will be curate at St James and St Nicolas Parish Church. There are some wonderful opportunities to partner with local schools and colleges, the Saints Nuneaton Hub, ecumenical churches and organisations and the chance to engage with the new communities centred in the vast amount of new housing estates that are being established in the area.
Ann McCabe
Ann will be serving as deacon at All Saints, Allesley. Originally from Portsmouth, she has always found faith to be a central part of her life. Ann trained as a nurse at Coventry University and later worked at Warwick Hospital where she developed a deep sense of the importance of compassionate, pastoral care. This calling led her to work at Coffee Tots, a Coventry-based Christian charity supporting families and addressing local inequalities. Highlights of this work included teaching Circle of Security parenting, leading baby massage classes, helping to shape a lunchtime worshipping community and building key relationships with vulnerable families, many of whom had no prior experience of church.
Ann recently completed her training for ordained ministry at St Mellitus College, London. Her time there deepened both her theological understanding and her appreciation for the breadth of worship within the Church of England. She was particularly drawn to the idea of generous orthodoxy, whereby one’s own walk with Christ is not diluted by the inclusion and exploration of other styles of Christian worship.
During her training, Ann moved from Holy Trinity, Coventry to St Christopher’s, Allesley Park, where she further explored and developed her calling. A key part of her ministry there was the development of World Changers, an after-school worshipping community reaching primary school children at St John’s School.
Ann is looking forward to her time at All Saints, where she hopes to use her joyful yet compassionate ministry to share God's love with the community.
Ann is married to Jim, and they have two children and a lively spaniel. In her spare time, she enjoys walking and gardening.
Mary Morris
Mary will be deacon at St. Pauls, Foleshill. She has been training at All Saints Church, Bedworth Parish for the past 4 years.
Mary was born in Bangladesh, and came to the UK in 1977 as a mixed-race child of a Muslim family. Her early life was marked by several moves until the family eventually settled in Stoke-on-Trent. She became a Christian at the age of 15, and later went on to study at Warwick University, achieving a BAQTS, qualifying as a teacher. Mary has loved her time in education, serving at a primary school in Nuneaton where she gained a whole variety of skills and experiences, which she hopes will serve her well in the next season, knowing nothing is wasted in God’s economy. After 30 years in teaching, Mary responded to the call to pursue the discernment process towards ordained ministry. She says, “There is no better place to be, than in the very centre of His will.”
Mary is married to Iain and together they have three adult children. She was delighted to celebrate the wedding of her eldest, two years ago, gaining a beautiful daughter-in-law. Mary’s whole family appears to be characterised by talented creatives and musicians, of which she is not one!
Lou Peet
Lou will be a deacon at the benefice of Stoke St. Michael, having trained at the Queen’s Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education in Birmingham.
For the past 8 years Lou has served at Blue Coat CofE School as Chaplain, enjoying leading Collective Worship and services on site and at Coventry Cathedral, Christian clubs, pastoral care and working ecumenically across the city. Lou has trained part-time alongside her fulltime Chaplain role, as Ordinand at St Paul’s in Foleshill. She has loved working with such a loving, diverse community.
Before training for ministry, Lou served as a General Practitioner in Nuneaton and Coventry, specialising in her later years as a GP in patients who were homeless and vulnerably housed. She also set up and ran one of the early Coventry Foodbank distribution centres, a pastoral surgery in a café and a discussion group in a local pub.
Lou is looking forward to being able to invest some of her learning and experience from education and community work in her new roles, including as a school governor at Ravensdale primary school and with the community, businesses and charities working in Stoke.
Lou is passionate about all things Kingdom of God! She most enjoys seeing how people can find and fulfil God’s call upon their lives, finding their sweet spots of Kingdom service in their everyday spheres of influence. She loves working alongside a diverse range of people including people of all ages, cultures and backgrounds, especially those in inner city urban environments.
Lou likes to invest in people and friendships, and is found most evenings taking a long walk to pray and to relax. She is therefore very excited about her new home being close to Coombe Abbey park, and is excitedly looking for a curate’s dog to join her!
Please pray for Lou as she settles into life and ministry in Coventry East.
Matt Robinson
Matt will be a deacon at The Ferncumbe Group - the parishes of Hatton with Haseley, Rowington with Lowsonford, and Honiley and Wroxall. He is married to Ellen, and they have an 18 month old son called Jacob who's a bundle of joyful energy.
Matt moved to Coventry ten years ago, working as an intern in the Cathedral's Reconciliation team, for the charity Together for Change, and latterly for St. Peter's Hillfields. In these roles God has led him to ministry with asylum seekers and refugees, which has included teaching English, managing a football team, developing a new worshipping community - and just about anything and everything in-between!
Matt has a heart for those who may feel on the margins, and the two verses that the Lord has undergirded him with are Matthew 25:35: "For I was a stranger, and you welcomed me"; and Matthew 6:26: "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them."
Matt felt the call to explore ordained ministry whilst leading the new worshipping community which developed, and has been training at St. Mellitus College in Nottingham for the last two years. He has enjoyed studying theology a lot more than he thought he would when he started! In his free time he enjoys walking with a bit of bird-watching (hence Matthew 6:26!), playing tennis, and going to the cinema with Ellen.
Please pray for Matt, Ellen and Jacob as they settle into Hatton, as well as his incumbent, Ann and all the people worshipping in the Ferncumbe Group as they prepare to welcome them as a family.