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The Bishop of Southwark, in consultation with the Team Rector, Revd Jonathan Haynes, has appointed the Revd Ayoob Adwar to be Team Vicar at St Mary’s Church Mortlake in the Mortlake with East Sheen Team, subject to the usual legal formalities.

Revd Ayoob has been serving as Curate at St Giles South Mimms, St Margaret’s Ridge and King Charles the Martyr Potters Bar churches in the diocese of St Albans for three years. Ayoob hails from the ancient Chaldean Church in Iraq. He was baptized and grew up in a Christian family. He joined the Chaldean Catholic monastic order of pontifical right. He trained for ministry in Babel College in Baghdad, which is affiliated to the Pontifical Urban University in Rome. He also studied at Al Mustansiriya University in Baghdad and he gained his bachelor’s degree in Social Anthropology.

He was ordained a deacon and priest in the Chaldean Diocese of Alqosh in Nineveh in 2008. Later he travelled to Italy to study for a master’s degree in Social Pedagogy at the Salesian Pontifical University in Rome and to Canada. Archbishop Melissa Skelton recognised Ayoob’s priesthood and welcomed
him into the Diocese of New Westminster and the Anglican Church of Canada in 2017.

It is anticipated that Revd Ayoob with his wife Nezha, their son Samuel and Nezha’s cousin
Walid will move to Mortlake towards the beginning of Lent, which begins on 5 March 2025, and that he will be licensed by the Bishop of Southwark at St Mary’s in March.

Welcome to Ayoob and his family and a Happy New Year to you all.