We welcomed the Revd Clive Hogger at Truro Cathedral on Sunday when he was installed as the next Archdeacon of Cornwall.

The Evensong service was led by the Dean of Truro, the Very Revd Simon Robinson and the Bishop of St Germans, the Rt Revd Hugh Nelson. Clive was joined by his wife Ali and children Thomas, Jacob, and Iona at the service.

Clive, who was formerly Associate Archdeacon in the Diocese of Sheffield, brings a wealth of experience especially around the issues of stigmatised and impoverished people and mental health.

Clive grew up in Hertfordshire in a village near Watford. After studying Philosophy at the University of Sheffield at the end of the 1980s and exploring esoteric and New Age thinking he, rather unsuccessfully, pursued a career as a nightclub DJ before moving to London in the mid ‘90s to train as a Registered Mental Health Nurse. While in London he met two very significant people; first he met his wife Ali who was also training to be a nurse, and second, he met Jesus and found a new meaning and purpose in life.

Having loved working with some of the most stigmatised and impoverished people in society in London, Birmingham and Coventry, God called Clive to move on from his nursing career in favour of ordained ministry, and following training in Cambridge he was ordained deacon in Coventry Cathedral in 2008 and priest a year later.

Clive served his curacy in Fletchamstead, Coventry, before becoming vicar of St Anne and All Saints in 2011, a city centre church serving a diverse and materially deprived neighbourhood. Clive also served as Area Dean for Coventry East Deanery from 2014, and after a pastoral scheme which involved joining with a neighbouring church, he became Rector of Coventry All Saints in 2016.

In 2021 Clive was appointed as Associate Archdeacon Transition Enabler in the Diocese of Sheffield, another diocese which, like Truro, is grasping some of the nettles of church life, and he played a significant part in helping that diocese to become both fruitful and sustainable by engaging with the need for change. In 2023 he graduated from Cardiff University with a Master’s degree in canon law.

Bishop Hugh said: “I am absolutely delighted to welcome Clive to the diocese. His deep faith and rich experience will be a gift to us all, and I know that the people and churches of Cornwall will be a gift to him in turn.”