What’s gone wrong at Winchester Cathedral?

The Dean of Winchester, the Very Revd Catherine Ogle, has announced that she will be retiring on 1 May 2025. The timing is interesting, as news of Ogle’s retirement emerged just hours before the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby resigned over the John Smyth abuse scandal.

The congregation of Winchester Cathedral started making their feelings about Ogle clear earlier this year, by going on a kind of Holy Communion hunger strike during services. Deeply unhappy about the damage being done to the musical life of their beloved cathedral under the reign of the controversial Precentor Andrew Trenier and the weak (but steely beneath her friendly surface) Dean, some of them refused to go up to the altar for communion. Others didn’t wait till the breaking of the bread. They walked out during the sermon, if it was given by either Trenier or Ogle, having no desire to be preached at by clergy who they believed had behaved in what seemed like a shockingly un-Christian manner towards some of their music staff.