Please join Bishop Sean in prayer for the family, friends and colleagues of the Reverend Canon Christine Goldsmith, who died yesterday (30 July).

Chris was serving as Rector of the Wolds Gateway Group and Rural Missioner of North East Lincolnshire, and was a member of the Diocesan Mission Enablers team. She was made a Canon of Lincoln Cathedral in 2025.

Chris and her husband Rick moved to the Diocese of Lincoln in 2019 from the Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf, where she was ordained priest by Bishop Michael in 2016—one of the first “home-grown” priests of the Diocese, and the first woman to be ordained in St Paul’s Cathedral, Nicosia. She was awarded a BTh in Discipleship and Ministry from Queen’s College Newfoundland under the Diocesan Ministry training programme.

During their time in Cyprus and the Gulf, Chris served at St Barnabas Limassol where she was especially active in working with refugee families and their children in the Kofinou camp.

Her friend and colleague, Vicar of Immingham and Assistant Archdeacon of North-East Lincolnshire the Reverend Julie Donn, yesterday wrote:

“Chris passed away peacefully at home in the early hours of this morning. Family, including her dogs and cats, were with her—and that had always been her wish, that they would get to say goodbye to her at home.

“I feel honoured that I have been able to be part of her journey and walk alongside her in good times and bad. Chris was an exceptional priest whose faith was tangible and profound and her passion for rural ministry knew no bounds. There is so much more to be said and shared but today we rest in this news.

“Chris was ready to go to her eternal home. It has been the recent focus of her prayers. This morning God welcomed her back.”

May she rest in peace and rise in perpetual glory.

A prayer vigil for Chris will be held at 7pm on Sunday 2nd August at St Bartholomew Keelby.