Our Rector

The Reverend Canon Carl F. Turner became XIII Rector of Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, New York in July 2014.  During that time, the parish has undertaken a major strategic plan, engaged in organizational change, is preparing for a major capital campaign, and one of the finest new organs in the USA was completed during his tenure.  With its world-famous choir of men and boys, the Saint Thomas Choir School is one of only three left in the world where the choristers make up the whole student boy and live on site.  In October, 2023, the Parish celebrates its bicentennial.

Canon Turner is Chaplain to the St. George’s Society of New York and is a member of the Venerable Order of St. John of Jerusalem.  He has worked closely with the Knights of Malta, and encouraged ecumenical cooperation in areas of social concern, including a project between St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, and Saint Thomas to provide two full-time social workers and a chaplain whose clients are homeless on the streets in that part of Midtown Manhattan.  The Order of Malta conferred on him their order of merit Cross of the Order “pro piis meritis” pro Merito Melitensi.  Since its creation in 1920, he is one of only two non-Roman Catholic clergy to receive it.  Carl is Co-Chair of the Regional Committee for New York and Connecticut for the Order of St. John, and is currently a member of the Chapter of the American Priory.  He is also a member of the Board of the Friends of Canterbury Cathedral in the US.

Before coming to Saint Thomas, Fr. Turner was Canon Precentor of Exeter Cathedral for thirteen happy years with its 850-year-old Choir School. He is a former member of the Church of England’s General Synod, the Liturgical Commission, and was a Director of the Association of English Cathedrals. Prior to his time in Exeter, Canon Turner served two curacies in Essex at Leigh-on-Sea and Brentwood. He then became Rector of the Parish of the Divine Compassion, a large urban parish in the East End of London where the Franciscan Religious life had been restored in 1894.

Carl was born in Kingston upon Hull, East Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom in 1960. By happy coincidence, this was also the hometown of the XI Rector of Saint Thomas Church, Father John Andrew who was instrumental in the resurgence of the Order of St. John in the USA.  Fr. Turner studied first at Durham University, and his postgraduate study was at Oxford University. Carl married his wife, Alison, in 1990. Alison is a teacher and a priest and, until Easter 2015 was Headmistress of Exeter Junior School, a leading independent preparatory school in the Southwest of England.  Alison now works for Saint Thomas Church as Associate for Children and Family Ministry and Chaplain to the Saint Thomas Choir School. Carl and Alison have three adopted children, three grandchildren, and a Cairn Terrier called Bertie who knows his way around all the places in the parish offices that have cookie jars.