We are currently blessed to have eleven Priests and three Permanent Deacons:
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Priests:
Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith, at St Clement's, Ewell
Fr Charles Howell, at Our Lady of Sorrows, Effingham, & Church of the Holy Spirit, Fetcham
Fr Chris Bergin, at St Michael's, Ashtead
Rev Fr Daryl George JCL, at Sacred Heart, Cobham
Fr Gary Carter, at St Joseph's, Epsom
Rev Dr Ian McDole, at St Ann's. Banstead
Fr Ian Vane, at St Joseph's, Dorking
Revd Fr Michael Masterson OBE, at Our Lady & St Peter, Leatherhead
Fr Simon Hall, at St Joseph's, Epsom
Fr Simon Iduh, at St John the Evangelist, Tadworth
Provost William Davern, at St Joseph's, Epsom
Permanent Deacons:
David Pattinson, at St Michael's Ashtead
Paul Fisher, at Sacred Heart, Cobham
Ian Wells, at Our Lady of Sorrows, Effingham, & Church of the Holy Spirit, Fetcham​
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We also have one retired Priest and one retired Deacon living (and working!) amongst us.
Clergy Profiles (in their own words):
Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith was born in Rustington in 1963 and was baptised in St Wilfrid's in Angmering. After a few years later his family moved to Malta, but he came back to England for his schooling, at Ratcliffe College in Leicestershire. He read English Literature at Oxford, and studied Theology at the Gregorian University in Rome, where he gained a doctorate in Moral Theology. He is the author of numerous books and articles on a wide variety of subjects, both religious and secular. His most recent interest is organised crime and its treatment in literature. He has been at Saint Clement's in Ewell since July 2024. Before that he was in Hove, and from 2003-2007 he spent four years as missionary in Kenya. [Deanery Newsletter #1, Autumn 2024]
Fr Charles Howell
"I was born and brought up in Weybridge; and the Surrey downlands were regular venues for Sunday afternoon trips out for walks and picnics. Being a rather shy lad, I didn’t start altar serving until my early teens.
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After school and sixth form at the Salesian School, Chertsey, I read Natural Sciences at Cambridge. It was while at university that the vague thoughts of priesthood I’d had since my teens started to crystalise into something more serious. So, after taking two years out post-graduation, I started training at St John’s Seminary, Wonersh, in September 1993 and was ordained priest on Trinity Sunday 2000.
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After two posts as assistant at Guildford and Eastbourne, I became parish priest at Merstham. My most recent role was at Storrington in West Sussex, where I served for ten years, before moving to my current appointment in February 2024. In addition, I have been priest chaplain at St Cuthman’s Pastoral Centre, Coolham and at Ford Prison.
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My hobbies include music, singing, and revelling in the beauty of God’s creation from flowers and birds to weather, storms, stars and planets. The picture is me walking on Lundy Island."
[Deanery Newsletter #4, September 2025]
Fr Daryl George was born in 1960 at the Military Hospital, Imtarfa, Malta, his father being in the Fleet Air Arm. He grew up and went to local state schools in Littlehampton, West Sussex.
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Fr Daryl was originally baptised in the Church of England but at the age of sixteen, after much thought, decided to look at the Catholic Church and at seventeen was received into Full Communion with the Church. He was greatly influenced in this journey by a group of Catholic friends with whom he had grown up.
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When he was twenty-one, having thought about it for some time, he offered himself to Bishop Cormac for the priesthood, was accepted and sent to St John’s Seminary, Wonersh, where he trained for five years.
On being ordained a Deacon and leaving the seminary he was appointed to the Sacred Heart, Caterham where, after his ordination in 1988, he remained as the assistant priest. He subsequently served as assistant priest in both St Joseph’s, Epsom and St John the Baptist, Brighton.
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Whilst at Brighton, Bishop Cormac asked him to undergo further training in Canon Law at the University of Leuven in Belgium, with a view to taking up work in the Diocesan Marriage Tribunal on his return. When he came back, he was appointed both to the Tribunal and as Parish Priest at Holy Family, Reigate.
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After ten years in Reigate, he was appointed Parish Priest of the Holy Family & St Charles Borromeo, East Worthing, and moved back down to the seaside for eleven years.
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In November 2019, Fr Daryl was appointed as Parish Priest of the Sacred Heart in Cobham, from where he generally goes down to the Tribunal, at the St Philip Howard Centre, Crawley, twice each week, dealing with marriage and other sorts of cases.
[Deanery Newsletter #4, September 2025]
Fr Gary at his Ordination in July 2025, with (L-R] Monsignor Gerry Ewing (last Rector of Wonersh Seminary and now Vicar General of Southwark), Fr Ruslan Kurdiumov (formerly Assistant Priest at Epsom and now Parish Priest in Fr Gary’s ‘home’ church of Walton on Thames) and Canon Bill Davern of St Joseph's Epsom
Fr Gary Carter
"I grew up in Surrey in Walton on Thames and was received into the Church ten years ago from the Baptist church. I studied theology at university and it was through this study that I first recognised the Lord’s call for me to become a Catholic, although this was a slow burn. It was whilst working as a member of support
staff with the Salesians in Chertsey that I finally had the light-bulb moment regarding Our Lord's Real Presence in the Eucharist and 'crossed the Tiber'.
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Discerning a vocation to the priesthood came both quickly (into the mind) and slowly (with regards to doing something about it), but I had the privilege of the support of Fr John Pearson and the Salesian priests of Chertsey in discerning the Lord's will. Seminary was a real blessing, if challenging at times, as it provided the opportunity to come to know God more as well as His people.
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I very much enjoyed my diaconate in Epsom and I am thrilled to remain here in my first appointment as a priest."
[Deanery Newsletter #4, September 2025]
Fr Ian Vane, Dorking
"I grew up in Hove and attended the then Cardinal Newman School. I can remember thinking about the priesthood as a 7-year-old, having read a book on the life of St Edmund Campion (don’t ask the author, it was a long time ago!); I recall wanting to do what he had done, although I suspect I had hesitations about martyrdom. I also recall during my first year at secondary school, hearing apparently contradictory things when, in R.E. yet again, we read the account of creation in Genesis and how ‘on the seventh day God rested’, a lesson immediately followed by a biology class where essentially the teacher said “When the Universe began about 14 billion years ago and planet earth emerged about 4.5 billion years ago …”. To an 11-year-old these two lines of thought raised many questions, and so I resolved to ask my parish priest not only to explain but to reconcile the two. Fortunately, my PP gave a comprehensive answer, showing the clear link between science and religion: his answer continues to inspire me today.
A couple of years later, I and a classmate would arrive every day at school before the school day began and my classmate suggested that during Lent we go to daily Mass, courtesy of the full time school chaplain, (I have to admit going to church was a warmer option than hanging around in a damp school yard waiting for the doors to open): from that season of grace onwards, I began to think more seriously about the priesthood, continuing to go to daily Mass after the Easter break.
After secondary school I went to the seminary in Valladolid, Spain, essentially founded at the time of the Reformation by King Philip II, who wished to help re-establish Catholicism in these Isles. Several of the students of that time returned to England and to martyrdom: to have one’s name in the same book as some of our martyr saints is quite something. Oh! And yes, all my studies, essays, exams, etc. were in Spanish.
Ordained in 1986 and appointed curate at St Joan’s, Farnham, I later moved to St Joseph’s, Brighton, and then St Wilfrid’s, Burgess Hill. In 1994, I was appointed as parish priest to St Charles Borromeo, Worthing, where I served for 13 years. In the autumn of 2007, I started a sabbatical year, spending 3 months in New Zealand, during one of which I looked after a parish and spending the other two with extended family. In February 2008 I studied for 4 months in Jerusalem. From 2009, I was seven years at English Martyrs, Horley, then seven years at Our Lady Immaculate in Uckfield; in September 2023, I came to St Joseph’s, Dorking. The grace of God, the imperceptible prayer of the martyr saints on our behalf and the vision that Jesus Christ is the Master Key to meaning of the Universe is an extra-ordinary thing."
[Deanery Newsletter #6, Lent 2026]
Deacon Ian Wells: “I was born in Portsmouth. After making my FHC, I was asked to become an Altar Server and served the early morning daily Mass for the Dockyard Workers. A new Curate came to the Parish determined to teach me the Latin Mass responses. He was Fr Cormac Murphy O’Connor! He was also responsible for persuading my Father (a non-Catholic) to send me to St John’s College founded by the De La Salle Brothers, rather than the non-Catholic Grammar School. We then moved to Maidstone and finally to Brighton where I met my wife to be, Jean.
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Climbing the Corporate ladder with an Oil Company required a lot of house moves. Our three children were born in Sussex, Norfolk, and the West Midlands. There were also two assignments in Ireland, between which we moved to our current home in Great Bookham. My journey to the Diaconate started in Lourdes during the Diocesan Pilgrimage. After Formation at Seminary, I was Ordained in 2008 into the Parish of The Holy Spirit, Fetcham, later conjoined with Our Lady of Sorrows, Effingham. In 2010, the Bishop asked me to be the RC Chaplain at Gatwick Airport: I spent 10 memorable years in this dynamic and rewarding Ministry. I have been a member of the Bishop’s Council of Deacons and am currently part of the mentoring team to assist the Diocesan Clergy. I praise God for this special Ministry, my marriage and my family.”
[Deanery Newsletter #1, Autumn 2024]
Deacon Paul Fisher: "I was born and brought up in Nottinghamshire, the eldest of three brothers in a Catholic family. On reaching the grand age of five I began my formal education in St Philip Neri’s parish primary school. Shortly after receiving my first Holy Communion, I was invited by my Parish Priest to be an altar server. Successfully passing the 11+ examination I won a scholarship to the Becket School, which was run by the Augustinians of the Assumption.
After A-levels I read Chemistry at Royal Holloway University where I met my future wife at a Cath-Soc meeting. After graduating we married and settled in Cobham parish where we brought up our two sons and one daughter. I pursued a career developing pilot scale equipment aiming to develop mad-scientists’ novel ideas into practical, useful industrial processes. Reflecting after a milestone birthday I felt a call to ministry and after a time of discernment entered formation for the diaconate and was ordained by Bishop Richard on the feast of St Peter and St Paul in 2023."
[Deanery Newsletter #2, Lent 2025]
Fr Rajesh Minz was ordained priest in 2008 for the Diocese of Rourkela, which is situated in the North East of India. After ordination Fr Raj served as an Assistant Parish Priest in his home diocese, where he helped establish a new school. After two and half years he moved to St. Albert’s Theological Regional Major Seminary in Ranchi, India, where he had done his own theological studies. He taught theology there for two years before being sent to do further studies in Pastoral Theology at Leuven, Belgium. With the agreement of his bishop, who wished him to have the experience of living and working abroad as a missionary, he has served in our Diocese since 2015, first in Bexhill, moving to Haslemere in September 2022 and serving as parish priest of Tadworth from September 2024. In his spare time he enjoys reading, writing, walking.
[Deanery Newsletter #2, Lent 2025]
Fr Rajesh was recalled to India by his Bishop and left immediately after Christmas 2025.
Provost William (Bill) Davern
"On the morning of my ordination to the priesthood, 14 July 1981, my brother called me, exclaiming that many are called but few get up.
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I did get up and that day I, along with Fr Martin Breen, was ordained by Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, in my home parish of St John the Baptist, Hospital, Co. Limerick.
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My response to an earlier call took place while I was working as a trainee nurse at Brookwood Hospital, Knaphill, near Woking, Surrey. It was a strange call, prompted by some of my work colleagues who were themselves lapsed at the time, that I should become a priest.
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Eventually I plucked up the courage to go and see my parish priest Fr Brendan MacCarthy, who at first suggested that I might like to apply to the Archdiocese of Southwark, but after a discussion he arranged for me see the vocation Director, Fr Barry Wymes. At their suggestion, I finished my nurse training and then went to Campion House, Osterley, in September 1973, spending two intense years there gaining some further academic qualifications before being sent to St John’s Seminary, Wonersh, for six years.
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After ordination my first appointment was to St Ann’s parish, Banstead, and as chaplain to St Andrews School, Leatherhead for five years. My second appointment was to Cardinal Newman school in Hove as full-time chaplain. In 1990, I was asked to look after St Clement’s in Ewell for nine months until a parish priest was appointed. Then off to Rome to study at the Angelicum for a BA in Spiritual Theology, returning to become, for the first time, Parish Priest, at Our Lady and St Peter’s, Leatherhead, where I spent one glorious year before being posted here to St Joseph’s Epsom.
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There is much to be thankful to God for in being able to get up for on that morning of July 1981."
[Deanery Newsletter #3 Pentecost 2025]
Canon Bill modestly omits mention of what he has done in Epsom since being appointed by Bishop Cormac in 1992, not least shepherding the Parish from its small site in the middle of town to a new hill-top church and parish centre. The first Mass was celebrated in the church on Maundy Thursday, 2001. The church was consecrated, by the same Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, by then Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, on the feast of St Joseph the Worker, 1st May 2001.
Profiles still to come:
Fr Chris Bergin
Deacon David Pattinson
Rev Dr Ian McDole
Revd Fr Michael Masterson OBE
Fr Simon Hall
Fr Simon Iduh