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Val and Clare are vicars - they met when training for their deaconry in the mid 1980s - they were two of only five women on a course of 35 people. They were the last year to be trained as Deaconesses rather than Deacons. Once permitted they became deacons, deans and then vicars. Currently Clare is Canon Pastor at Canterbury Cathedral, while Val is retired - her last role being as Canon of Llandaff Cathedral. They took different paths to the priesthood - Clare worked as paediatric nurse and when it was suggested she train as a deacon took a year to decide as she felt her nursing was also a calling. Val says she wanted to be a vicar ever since she was tiny and just had to wait to be permitted to be one. During their conversation they discussed the trials and tribulations of becoming and being priests, and the question of what one should wear.