{"id":787,"date":"2026-08-27T14:01:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T13:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chavezpoon.com\/?p=787"},"modified":"2026-09-02T17:33:59","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T16:33:59","slug":"married-roman-catholic-priest-appointed-to-lead-st-marys-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chavezpoon.com\/?p=787","title":{"rendered":"Married Roman Catholic Priest appointed to lead St. Mary\u2019s University"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rev. Fr. \u00d8ystein Lund, a married Catholic priest of the Diocese of Oslo in Norway, has been appointed Vice-Chancellor of St. Mary\u2019s University, Twickenham, London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fr. Lund brings to the role a distinctive background in both theology and higher education. A former Lutheran priest and theologian in the Church of Norway, he was received into the Catholic Church in 2009. Under the provisions permitting the ordination of married former Protestant clergy, he was subsequently ordained a deacon in 2013 and a priest in 2014 for the Diocese of Oslo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His journey from the Lutheran tradition into full communion with the Catholic Church has been accompanied by a longstanding interest in theology, education, and the relationship between faith and academic scholarship. His appointment therefore comes at an important time for St. Mary\u2019s as the university continues to develop its academic and professional offering while maintaining its Catholic identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Speaking about his appointment, Fr. Lund said that he was \u201chonoured\u201d to have been appointed Vice-Chancellor of the university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhat draws me most to St. Mary\u2019s,\u201d he continued, \u201cis its ability to combine academic excellence with a genuine commitment to human flourishing, rooted in the Church\u2019s long tradition of learning, scholarship and inquiry.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His comments reflect St. Mary\u2019s distinctive mission as a Catholic university, where academic study and professional formation are pursued alongside a broader vision of the human person and the common good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Founded in 1850, St. Mary\u2019s University in Twickenham, is one of England\u2019s Catholic universities and has a long history of providing higher education within the Catholic intellectual tradition. The university is currently preparing to open a new School of Medicine, with its first intake of students expected later this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fr. Lund\u2019s appointment comes as St. Mary\u2019s enters this new phase of development, bringing together its longstanding Catholic educational mission with an expanding range of academic disciplines and professional programmes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u00d8ystein Lunds prestevielse 1. mai 2014\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qhElmRxKkLo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A short video of Fr. \u00d8ystein Lund&#8217;s Priestly Ordination on 1st May 2014 in St. Olav&#8217;s Cathedral in Oslo, Norway<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rev. Fr. \u00d8ystein Lund, a married Catholic priest of the Diocese of Oslo in Norway, has been appointed Vice-Chancellor of St. Mary\u2019s University, Twickenham, London. Fr. Lund brings to the role a distinctive background in both theology and higher education. A former Lutheran priest and theologian in the Church of Norway, he was received into the Catholic Church in 2009. Under the provisions permitting the ordination of married former Protestant clergy, he was subsequently ordained a deacon in 2013 and a priest in 2014 for the Diocese of Oslo. His journey from the Lutheran tradition into full communion with the Catholic Church has been accompanied by a longstanding interest in theology, education, and the relationship between faith and academic scholarship. His appointment therefore comes at an important time for St. Mary\u2019s as the university continues to develop its academic and professional offering while maintaining its Catholic identity. Speaking about his appointment, Fr. Lund said that he was \u201chonoured\u201d to have been appointed Vice-Chancellor of the university. \u201cWhat draws me most to St. Mary\u2019s,\u201d he continued, \u201cis its ability to combine academic excellence with a genuine commitment to human flourishing, rooted in the Church\u2019s long tradition of learning, scholarship and inquiry.\u201d His comments reflect St. Mary\u2019s distinctive mission as a Catholic university, where academic study and professional formation are pursued alongside a broader vision of the human person and the common good. Founded in 1850, St. Mary\u2019s University in Twickenham, is one of England\u2019s Catholic universities and has a long history of providing higher education within the Catholic intellectual tradition. The university is currently preparing to open a new School of Medicine, with its first intake of students expected later this year. Fr. Lund\u2019s appointment comes as St. Mary\u2019s enters this new phase of development, bringing together its longstanding Catholic educational mission with an expanding range of academic disciplines and professional programmes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[41,50,71],"class_list":["post-787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-england","tag-london","tag-st-marys-university"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.chavezpoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/img_3347.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chavezpoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chavezpoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chavezpoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chavezpoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chavezpoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=787"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.chavezpoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":806,"href":"https:\/\/www.chavezpoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787\/revisions\/806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chavezpoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chavezpoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chavezpoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chavezpoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}