On 12 May 2019 at Birmingham Cathedral, the Bishop of Birmingham collated Jenny Tomlinson as the new Archdeacon of Birmingham, and the Dean of Birmingham installed her as an Honorary Canon of The Cathedral Church of St Philip, Birmingham.
Jenny read history at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and worked in NHS management in Surrey. She trained for ordination at Ridley Hall Cambridge and served her curacy in the parish of St John the Baptist Busbridge, in Guildford Diocese. She was among the first women to be ordained priest in 1994.
Jenny moved to the Diocese of Chelmsford in 1998 and held parish posts in Grays and the Saffron Walden and Villages Team Ministry, and as an Interim Minister in the North Blackwater parishes. As a healthcare chaplain in South West Essex, she initiated a new model of community chaplaincy. Jenny was appointed the Bishop of Chelmsford’s Adviser on Women’s Ministry in 2008, and as Mission and Ministry Adviser in 2011.