Rosemary Lain-Priestley was born and grew up in Lancashire. She studied English Literature and Theology at University in Canterbury.
Her first job was as an immigration law adviser in a Blackburn law firm, which she juggled with training for ordination as an Anglican priest. She then spent a year working in rural KwaZula-Natal, South Africa, and travelling in South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Rosemary returned to the UK to be ordained and worked first in Lancaster, then moved to St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, in the late 1990s.
Since leaving St Martin's in 2006 Rosemary has been working on issues relating to female clergy in central London and nationally, whilst being Chair of Governors of a High School in South London, broadcasting regularly on BBC Radio 4's Thought for the Day, and writing books and articles.
Rosemary is married with three young children.
