The Reverend Peter Leighton, MA
Cathedral Dean
Email: peterleighton@stmaryscathedral.org.uk

Peter Leighton was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1955. He was educated at St Cuthbert's Grammar School and then studied at Ushaw College and Durham University. Ordained priest in 1983, his first appointment was as assistant priest at St Cuthbert's, Chester-le-Street until 1988 when he came to the Cathedral where he served for three years as an assistant priest and diocesan chaplain to deaf people. In 1991 he was appointed parish priest of St Cuthbert's, Durham and Catholic Chaplain to Durham University. He remained there for 14 years until August 2005 when he left to take a sabbatical which included studies in Rome and at the John Paul II Institute in Melbourne. On his return, he was appointed Cathedral Dean in April 2006.

The Reverend Marc Lyden-Smith, MA
Curate
Email: marclydensmith@stmaryscathedral.org.uk

Marc Lyden-Smith was born in 1982 in Hebburn, where his family still lives. He has two younger siblings, a brother and a sister. He was educated at St Aloysius primary school and St Joseph's Secondary in Hebburn, where he was head boy. After gaining his A Levels, he went on to do a degree at Newcastle University in Religious Education, and some teacher training, because he intended to become an RE teacher. It was during University that he began to consider the priesthood, so after graduating he embarked on a year's discernment at the Royal English College in Valladolid, Spain for a year. During the Valladolid year he decided that he wanted to continue with the whole process of discernment and was accepted to start studying at Ushaw College in 2004. He completed a degree in theology and ministry and an MA in theology while at Ushaw, and was ordained a Deacon in June 2009. Marc was ordained to the priesthood on 12th June 2010 in his home parish of St Aloysius, Hebburn and was appointed to the Cathedral in September 2010.