The Revd Clive Hogger has been appointed as the next Archdeacon of Cornwall.
Clive, who is currently Associate Archdeacon Transition Enabler for Adwick and Snaith, will be installed at a service in Truro Cathedral in early June 2024.
Joining Clive in his move to Cornwall will be his wife Ali and their Labrador Teddy. Clive and Ali have three grown up children, Thomas, Jacob, and Iona. Ali is also ordained in the Church of England and is a lecturer and national safeguarding lead for St Mellitus College, a theological training college based in Plymouth, London, Chelmsford and Nottingham.
Clive said: “I am honoured and excited to have been invited to become the next Archdeacon of Cornwall, although I leave here with a heavy heart. I was attracted to the Diocese of Sheffield by your willingness to grasp nettles and embrace change in order to better equip and sustain the people of God in the mission of God. And I have been blown away by your faith and your commitment to each other as things have developed. It has been a privilege to play a part in your journey and I shall be leaving a part of my heart here in “God’s own country” as I respond to the call of God to minister in the Diocese of Truro.”
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.
By August 2017 it became apparent that Clive had developed a rather niche interest in Canon Law, in the mechanics of ordering the church, as he seemed to delight in spending time reading obscure pieces of legislation and various synod reports, and it was fairly unsurprising when he was appointed Acting Archdeacon Pastor (Archdeacon of Coventry) until March 2018 when he was then appointed as Assistant Archdeacon in the same diocese, supporting parishes and people through many challenges and concerns. When that period of secondment came to a natural end in 2019 Clive returned to his parish where he led them through the trials and tribulations of building closures, socially distanced church, and online worship during the recent pandemic.
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.
Clive remains passionate about wellbeing and about serving the most marginalised members of the community, and he enjoys sea-swimming, walking, Belgian beer, and following Watford FC.
The Rt Revd Sophie Jelley, the Bishop of Doncaster and the Acting Bishop of Sheffield, said: “We have been greatly blessed by Clive’s ministry as Associate Archdeacon Transition Enabler in the Diocese of Sheffield. Much as there will be heavy hearts in the twinned deanery he has served as they receive this news, this is a great opportunity for him and he will be a wonderful asset to the Diocese of Truro. We shall miss them very much, but our prayers are with Clive, Ali and the family as they respond to God’s call to Cornwall.”