BLACKBURN Cathedral has announced its first female canon.

The Rev Ann Wood vicar of St Nicholas Church, Marton Moss, Blackpool, and women's officer for the Blackburn Diocese, will be installed by the Bishop of Blackburn and Provost of Blackburn Cathedral early next year.

Mrs Wood, who grew up in Darwen and trained for the Anglican ministry while working in the accounts department of Daniel Thwaites brewery, Blackburn, said she was "overjoyed and overwhelmed."

She added: "Part of me was overjoyed and part of me was overawed by this appointment; not just for me but for what it means for women's ministry.

"My appointment should give women's ministry a higher profile in the diocese, but hopefully the right sort of profile.

Mrs Wood, who is married to Keith, a newspaper typesetter, and has two daughters, Carol, 28, Louise, 23, and a granddaughter Laura, aged seven, is one of just two women incumbents in the Blackburn diocese.

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