Canon Dr Tom Clammer
The Revd Canon Dr Tom Clammer trained for the priesthood at Westcott House, Cambridge, before serving his Title in the City of Gloucester. After curacy Tom was incumbent of seven rural villages in the Diocese of Gloucester, before becoming Canon Precentor of Salisbury Cathedral. He retired from the cathedral in 2019, and now combines a ministry of spiritual direction and writing with teaching posts at Cuddesdon and Sarum College.
Tom's particular area of interest is liturgical theology, both as an academic discipline and as a vital part of the lived experience of the worshipping people of God. He is convinced that the church which prays well together is the essential starting point for all of the rest of the endeavour of Christian discipleship.
Tom's PhD thesis, published as Fight Valiantly (SCM Press), is a detailed study of the way in which the liturgy of the Church of England presents evil and the devil, and argues that current provision is confused and inadequate. More recently his volume Crowning the Year (Canterbury Press) is an ecclesiological, liturgical and pastoral reflection on the ministry of rural Church of England congregations. Tom contributes to academic journals, has provided sermons for the Canterbury Preachers Companion for the last two years, and is in the early stages of volume on Anglican ecclesiology.
Tom is a novice Brother of the Anglican Order of Cistercians, and is fascinated by the conversation between traditional monastic forms and contemporary ministry. He is married to Emma, a teacher, and they live in Salisbury.