Jonathan was born and brought up in Colchester before reading Classics and Theology at Selwyn College, Cambridge.

After a year as a lay teacher/librarian in the novice training house of the Anglican Franciscans in the Solomon Islands he worked as assistant clerk in the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury in Westminster before returning to Cambridge to train for the ministry at Westcott House.

He was ordained deacon in 1999 and priest in 2000 as curate of St Neots in Huntingdonshire, and in 2002 went to Jesus College, Cambridge as chaplain. In 2009 he was appointed by the Crown, patron of the living of St Augustine’s, as Vicar.  In October 2015 Jonathan was appointed an Honorary Canon of Chelmsford Cathedral.

His wife, Judith, is a geologist and geo-archaeologist, and they have two daughters, Rose and Lily.