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Launde Abbey welcomed their new Deputy Warden, the Revd Anna Walker, in a service of welcome on Tuesday 3 February. The licensing service, held in the chapel at Launde, was led by the Bishop of Leicester alongside Bishop Debbie and was full of music, prayer and celebration, with staff, volunteers, trustees and friends of Launde Abbey present.
Anna grew up in the Finnish Lutheran Church with an early sense of vocation. Her life took a defining turn during a gap year when staying in Taizé, the ecumenical monastic community in France. There she met her husband, discovered the joy of shared spiritual life, and picked up what she fondly calls “the community bug.”
After moving to the UK, training in spiritual direction, and working in student welfare, her long‑felt call to priesthood finally caught up with her. She trained as an Ordinand for three years at Lancaster Priory, served her curacy in Preston, and became Director of Whalley Abbey before joining the team at Launde Abbey.
Anna says she “was really drawn to the chance to work as part of a larger team in a setting with a long and rich retreat tradition. At Whalley, I had been involved in a very wide range of responsibilities, and I began to realise that what I was most longing for was more space to focus on the spiritual and retreat side of the work.”
Launde Abbey is a place of prayer and hospitality, home to a thriving community and Anna will be responsible for their well-received programme of over 40 residential and day retreats a year. She is keen to begin her role by listening; “listening to what the Spirit is doing, and what people are really longing for. What kinds of retreats do people need right now? What is the church and the wider world thirsting for? I think that’s really important.”
When asked about her calling as Deputy Warden at Launde, Anna said: “For me, it’s about helping people grow spiritually, nourishing them, offering space for quiet and reflection and asking the deeper questions of faith and life. Spiritual direction and retreat ministry are very close to my heart, and they’re a big part of this role.”