Canon Bryan Rowe is the latest in a long list of Rectors of Workington, which parish records show date back to 1150.

He was born and bred in Millom and is proud of his Cumbrian roots. His first connection with the church was as a member of the local Methodist Sunday School and then on to membership of the Methodist Church in the early 1960s where he went on to become a Sunday School helper.

He met his wife Sheila at Millom School where they began their courtship. Upon leaving school, Bryan commenced employment with Vickers Ship Building in Barrow where he served his apprenticeship as a marine engineering draughtsman. In those days, Vickers Ship Building was the major employer in the area, employing almost 15,000 people.

Bryan and Sheila married in 1973 at Millom Parish Church and then moved to Barrow. They have two grown up daughters, and it was when the girls were little that they began their involvement with the local churches of S^T George and S^T Luke, Barrow. Whilst members of S^T Luke's Church, Bryan and Sheila recieved encouragement and support from the then vicar Canon Clive Gillhespey and his wife Kath. After joining the PCC (Church Council), Bryan was confirmed into the Church of England at the age of 30 and both Bryan and Sheila became very active in church life, Bryan as the Churchwarden and Sheila as a Sunday School teacher. In addition to this, they offered up their home for house groups and Bible study, and lead a very active Youth Group on a Sunday night.

Bryan was licensed as a lay minister along with 12 others from the parish and assisted in worship and also took communion to the sick and housebound. It was after a home communion visit, when the recipient commented "you ought to be a vicar" that Bryan began to rethink his future.

In Lent 1987, he enquired about the possibility of Ordination, and by September that year, he had begun training with the Carlisle Diocesan Training Institute at Rydal Hall. Bryan was ordained Deacon at Carlisle Cathedral by Bishop Harland in 1990 and the Rowe family packed up and moved to live in Kells, Whitehaven. Here, he served his curacy under the guidance of Canon Jim Hyslop, Sheila again, taking an active role within Bryan's ministry and leading the local Sunday School.

Three years to the date later, Bryan was licensed as Priest-in-Charge of S^T Kentigerns Aspatria and S^T James' Hayton. Sheila, as ever, played a major part in this by establishing the Sunday School at Hayton. She eventually became a member of the Aspatria Mothers Union  and soon was made Diocesan Treasurer, working with President Barbara Johnstone and Secretary Ann King.

In 1999, Bryan was made Rural Dean of Solway, and later that year, was made an Honorary Canon of Carlisle Cathedral.

In November 2002, Bryan accepted the offer to move to S^T Michaels. He was placed into the Rectors Stall by Bishop Dow and licensed as the 45th Rector of Workington.

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