Graham has been Rector and Lecturer of Hexham since 2004. In that time, the congregation has grown and links have been developed to support an area of regeneration and a domestic violence charity, to open a foodbank for West Northumberland, and provide 2000 children visiting the Abbey each year with tailor made activity days linked to the National Curriculum.
The Abbey has recently reunited its former monastic buildings taken from it by Henry VIII, and having raised £3.2m is currently developing a new visitor centre, refectory, education rooms and meeting spaces.
Before moving to Hexham, Graham was vicar of a parish in Middlesbrough which is in one of England’s 2% most deprived communities, where he chaired the neighbourhood management group and developed an innovative arts based project to divert young people from crime.
Alongside his parish work, Graham currently chairs the Northeast Forestry and Woodlands Advisory Committee of the Forestry Commission, and is a Secretary of State appointee on the Northumberland National Park Authority. He has served as Area Dean while at Hexham.