Hospiscare founder to join Exeter Cathedral

The founding chairman of Hospiscare in Exeter is to be appointed as a Canon of Exeter Cathedral.

Rev Dr John Searle will be installed in the Cathedral during Choral Evensong on 11 September.

After qualifying as a doctor, John worked at Guys Hospital and in Ghana, before moving to work at the Royal Devon and Exeter hospital as a consultant anaesthetist and director of intensive care unit.

Passionate about making conditions better for those diagnosed with a terminal illness, he worked to set up Hospicecare in Exeter and became its first chairman. He has been its President for the last 15 years. John was awarded an OBE for services to medicine and the hospice movement in 1998.

He was ordained by the then Bishop of Exeter in 1995. He and wife Elizabeth, who is a marathon runner, live in Exeter.

John said: “The invitation to become a Canon and Member of the Cathedral’s Residentiary Chapter came as an absolute surprise, just as I was beginning to think about a few years of quiet retirement! But God is a God of surprises.

“It will be a great pleasure to share in the life of the Cathedral community, supporting and encouraging all who are involved there as we move forward in sharing the Christian good news with our city and county in ways which are accessible and relevant to people’s lives.”

The Dean of the Cathedral, Very Revd Jonathan Draper, said: “We are delighted to have John join us as a member of Chapter because of the breadth of his experience in the City of Exeter, in the Diocese and professionally.”