A popular Powys priest has expressed his excitement at starting his next venture as he has moved from Brecon Cathedral to the town centre.

Reverend Mark Clavier, who is now the vicar of St Mary’s Church, has also been appointed as the canon theologian to the Diocese of Swansea and Brecon as well as to the role of Bishop’s Chaplain to the diocese’s newly appointed Bishop John Lomas.

The 51-year-old will not be leaving his home at the cathedral, where he served as the canon residentiary for around five years.

Originally from America, Mark took his first service at St Mary’s Church, which sits between The Bulwark and the High Street, on Sunday, June 12.

Mark, who said he sees “enormous potential” in St Mary’s, said: “Bishop John approached me about carving out a new role that would involve three different responsibilities that would be of great use to him.

“The first role is called the Bishop’s Chaplain, so I’ll work with the bishop in putting together services he’s involved with throughout the diocese and helping with some of his diary commitments, basically being useful to him in whatever way he wants.

“It’s partly that, and partly another role which is called a canon theologian to the diocese. It’s an interesting role because in most places a canon theologian is attached to the cathedral - it’s usually a kind of academic who is maybe a priest as well and they might do some lectures or a study group, but I’m going to be a canon theological to the diocese.

“My role is going to be travelling around the diocese and doing some study days and talks and things like that, but also trying to give a resource to encourage more engagement with scripture and theology around the diocese which will be a lot of fun, and I’ve kind of been doing that informally for quite some time.”

Mark, who spent 13 years as a minister in America before moving to the UK, explained the Bishop John Lomas attended the Good Friday Walk of Witness at St Mary’s Church where he met the people and to look at the church’s position in the town.

After seeing “real potential” in the church and its location in the heart of Brecon, he offered the opportunity to Mark to move down from Priory Hill, the home of Brecon Cathedral, to St Mary’s.

“Throughout its history, St Mary’s has been essentially under the care of the cathedral, so during the Middle Ages it was a chapel of ease for what would have been the priory [now Brecon Cathedral].

“It would have been a place where they probably would have done Sunday services for those who were unable to go up to what would have then been the monastery.

“After the reformation, the Brecon priory became the parish church for Brecon and this [St Mary’s] was the chapel of ease for the parish. By the 18th century, we know even though it was a chapel of ease, most people attended St Mary’s and they buried their dead up at Brecon priory.

Even though it became its own parish when the priory parish became a cathedral, for the past 20 odd years its vicar has been someone on staff with the cathedral.

“The bishop wanted to see what would happen if that relationship was changed and you had someone in post who, on a Sunday morning, didn’t need to dash off to the cathedral and who could commit a bit more of their time to that congregation.

“The combination of the three roles seemed like a really good opportunity. I retain some responsibilities at the cathedral, like I still do bible study up there and my Convivium initiative is trying to get people about the environment and faith will remain up there and I’ll help with Wednesdays and Tuesdays.”

Mark, who said his favourite hymn is the 14th century classic Come Down O Love Divine, lives in the town with his wife Sarah and their two dogs, springer spaniel Cuthbert and sprocker spaniel Humphrey.

The avid walker, who is close to having completed 22,000 mile since 2012, was born in Greenville in South Carolina although he spent most of his childhood in Florida before moving to Virginia where he attended High School and studied medieval history at the College of William and Mary - he later studied his undergraduate in theology in North Carolina’s Duke University.

Mark, who his a dual citizen of both Britain and the USA, grew up in the church as his father was a bishop of the American Episcopal Church - one of the breakaway churches in America.

Mark said that his father, who is originally from South Yorkshire before living in America for 57 years, has recently moved to Brecon.

The author of multiple books on religion and consumerism said his move to St Mary’s Church is “bitter-sweet”.

He said: “In all honesty, it’s a bitter-sweet move because I’ve poured five years of my life into the cathedral and the congregation there and I was with them every mile of the way during the pandemic and that was a kind of bonding experience in the community.

“I love the cathedral and cherish that place, one of the things I love is that I’ll continue living on-site so I’ll maintain those relationships, but there is also a kind of excitement.

“I really get a charge out of going into a situation where people want to believe again, what to have something that gives them real hope about what the future’s going to give them and to see if you can take what is a struggling congregation and really build something that can inspire people.”

Mark, who first started as a curate in a church just outside of Baltimore in Maryland, also spent time in Oxford before spending around four and a half years as the dean of residential training in St Michael’s College - an Anglican theological college in Cardiff which serves Llandaff Diocese.

When asked about his plans for his new post, Mark said that he is hoping to turn it into a positive beacon in the community.

He said: “At the moment, my plan is just trying to bring a bit of energy and optimism to the place but I’ve taken as a kind of strap-line that we’re going to try to be a beacon of faith, hope and love in the hearts of Brecon.

“In the autumn we’re going to organise some conversations that say ‘alright, what would it mean for us to be a beacon of faith in Brecon? What would it mean to be a beacon of hope in Brecon? What would it mean to be a beacon of love? And from those three things, hopefully, we can develop a real identity and conversation with people around the town on who we are and who is God calling us to be in Brecon.

“I think there’s huge potential there, not least because of what they’ve done already with things like the tower cafe and how it brings people into the cafe - it’s to be able to reach out and help bring people to where they need to be.”

Mark, who has been a Christian “all his life”, enjoys walking and backpacking in his spare time - including in the Alps and the Pyrenees mountains.

The priest, who’s favourite Bible verse is Romans 5:5, said he is hoping to merge higher and lower church doing his time with St Mary’s.

He said: “One of the things I find frustrating here in Britain is you get this stark divide in churches. You’ve either got high church which is very, very, very stuffy and solemn or everybody’s warm and welcoming but it’s very sort of evangelical.

“What I’m used to is high church where it’s liturgical with all the tradition of the church but done in a way where there’s life and energy and people are a family.”

The Reverend said that he aims to make walking into church like walking through “the wardrobe” from C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by merging higher and lower church.

He said: “We need to make them like the wardrobe so when people walk through, they encounter a whole other world which is essentially the world turned the right way up.

“It’s a community rooted in love and in that great story that we call the scriptures and so that’s one of the things I’m keen to see if we can do in St Mary’s, and I think we can.”