The Revd Christopher Hancock, MA FCA has been appointed half-time Rector of The Octagon Parish and his licensing is expected to be early in the New Year.
Since 2017 Christopher has served as the Honorary Assistant Curate in the United Benefice of Headley and Box Hill with Walton-on-the Hill in the Diocese of Guildford.
After reading Classics at Oxford (1986-90), Christopher trained as a Chartered Accountant before entering corporate finance in the City. Following the Crash of 2008, he set up his own advisory business which gave him time to pursue a long-standing vocation to the Priesthood.
He trained with the Local Ministry Programme in Guildford and, having served his Diaconate and first curacy at St Martin of Tours in Epsom, was ordained Priest on 1st July 2017 at Guildford Cathedral.
He then returned to his home parish on the North Downs to minister in the church of St Mary’s Headley where he and his wife, Kate, had been married in 1994, where their three children were baptised and where, more recently, one of them was married.
Christopher combines his spiritual work with a continuing career in finance – he is CFO to a technology company which uses AI to provide maritime surveillance to the UK Government and is also Non-Executive Director of an AIM-listed public company – he thus strives to ‘serve both God and Mammon’, seeing this in the Benedictine tradition as a call to orare et laborare. He is an Oblate at Westminster Abbey and a Trustee of the Prayer Book Society.
He is no stranger to the Octagon – he has been a regular visitor to his parents’ home in Walderton since they moved there in 2004 and has taken several services during the current interregnum. He is very much looking forward to taking up the post of Rector to the Parish in the New Year.
After a long vacancy, we are keen to welcome Christopher and Kate into our community and look forward to his ministry amongst us.
Sarah Lawton and Carol Stamper
Octagon Church Wardens
Author: Rachel
The Octagon Parish administrator
