Jessica Cook went from being non-religious to working for the Minster Police, to becoming the deputy head verger at York.
RELIGION was not part of my life growing up – I deliberately stayed away from it. Now it is part of my everyday.
Few people decide to become vergers. It tends to be a thing we fall into.
Maybe if I had known that such a job existed, I would have done it earlier.
I moved to York in 2008, and from the moment I moved here I wanted to work in this magnificent building.
The first job that attracted me was for the Minster Police – we have our own police force in the minster – and I became Minster Police Constable.
Then, in 2017, I was baptised and confirmed, which started my faith journey.
I wanted to become more involved in the purpose of the building.
We are so popular with tourists, but our purpose is worship, and when I was baptised I wanted to be part of that.
Then a job came up in the verger’s department in 2018, and that’s how I ended up being a verger at York Minster.
I left for a head verger’s job at Peterborough Cathedral in 2021 for two years.
I only moved back to York a few months ago, when the deputy head verger’s role was created at York Minster.
Being the deputy is a great privilege.
I missed the city as much as I missed the minster, so I could not have missed the opportunity to be back.
I am currently the only female verger in our team here, and there are only about four or five female head vergers around the country.
It is a male-dominated role, but being a verger feels like a job I have done forever.
When I tell people I am a verger, they ask, “What’s that?”, and I was one of these people before.
People call us “liturgical stage managers” because we set the minster for whatever is happening.
We do all the prep, like putting out hundreds of chairs, altar-moving and setting, preparing books and vestments, setting staging for various concerts, and making sure clergy and congregation have everythin
