Revd Julia Mann and Adrian Mann became part of St John’s congregation in 1973, soon after they married and moved into Bury St Edmunds.
Julia’s initial career was in library work. At one point she deputised as the person running the library trolley service at the West Suffolk Hospital and this led to a change of career by way of nurse training. After some general ward work she came to specialise in endoscopy nursing. She has an honours degree in Art History from Anglia Ruskin University: in studying for this she wrote a dissertation on the church architect Ninian Comper.
In 2003 Julia began training to become an Ordained Local Minister, being ordained deacon in 2008 and priest in 2009. She is now an Assistant Priest in the Lark Valley and North Bury Team Ministry, serving St John’s along with the other nine parishes of the benefice.
After training as an accountant Adrian moved into the charity sector, working for the Sue Ryder Foundation. He became a diocesan Reader at St John’s in 1980, a role he retains, now also in the Lark Valley and North Bury Team Ministry. He has served more than one stint as Treasurer of St John’s Parochial Church Council.
Following the work of the Anglican Stewardship Association (ASA) at St John’s at about that time, he joined ASA as a project director, guiding stewardship initiatives in parishes across the country as well as in Anglican chaplaincies in the Diocese in Europe. Theological reflection on that work at the William Temple Foundation led to the publication of No Small Change: Money, Christians and the Church (Canterbury Press, 1992). He later co-edited, with Robin Stevens and John Willmington, a collection of liturgical material on Christian giving, First Fruits (Canterbury Press, 2001).
Adrian also acts as a trustee of the Bury St Edmunds Ecumenical Centre Trust, which runs The Centre next door to St John’s, and as a Director of Just Traid (Bury St Edmunds) Ltd, the fair trade shop and community café which operates in the same building.