MORE than 700 people took part in a special service at Ely Cathedral on Saturday, to install the Rev Canon Mark Bonney as the 35th Dean of Ely.

The service was attended by the High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire, Penny Walkinshaw; and the Lord Lieutenant Hugh Duberly, as well as cathedral staff, and members of Ely Cathedral’s choirs and congregation.

Many of the guests were friends and clergy from Salisbury Cathedral, where Canon Bonney had been the resident canon treasurer.

During the ceremony, the new Dean was presented to the Bishop of Ely by the Dean of Salisbury, before taking the formal declarations and oaths.

The Cathedral Sunday Club welcomed the new Dean and his family by presenting him a prayer tree and a Bible during the ceremony, and presenting his wife Katy with a bouquet of flowers.

The Very Rev Canon Bonney was educated in Ipswich and at Cambridge. He trained for the ministry at St Stephen’s House, Oxford, and was ordained as a priest 1986 at Durham Cathedral. He was Chaplain and then Precentor at St Albans Cathedral between 1988 and 1992, vicar of Eaton Bray from 1992 to 1996, and Rector of Great Berkhamsted from 1996 until he moved to Salisbury.

Canon Bonney and his wife, who is a primary school teacher, have two daughters, Hannah and Eleanor. The family moved to Ely in the summer, so Canon Bonney could replace the former Dean, the Very Rev Dr Michael Chandler.