Fr David has an MA from the University of Cambridge, and is the Praelector, and a Fellow, of Wolfson College, Cambridge.

Although Fr David had no formal theological training, his father was a priest in the Church of England so he was brought up in the faith. A senior member of the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, since 2002, Fr David has published two liturgical books with Canterbury Press — a book of table graces translated from the Latin Breviary, and a compendium of prayers of preparation for holy communion from Anglican and other sources.

He was brought up in the Church of England, and spent some years as a member of the Eastern Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate). Fr David worked later in the Open Episcopal Church, first as deacon ordained at Welling Chapel, London, and later as priest ordained in Ely, where he lives with his wife Sam.

Now Fr David is the priest of the Community of the Isle of Ely and The Fens, which is a mixed local and dispersed community based around Ely in the Cambridgeshire Fens. He incardinated into OCAC during Lent 2024.

Fr David says, "As well as being priest of the Community of the Isle of Ely and The Fens, I am a Force Chaplain for Cambridgeshire Constabulary, based at Ely Police Station, and Chaplain to Welney Ward, Princess of Wales Hospital, Ely (Cambridgeshire & Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust). I also assist from time to time with Sunday service holiday cover for the Trust’s Lead Chaplain at Fulbourn Psychiatric Hospital near Cambridge.

I am a narrowboat owner and keen boater, and provide informal pastoral support to members of the live-aboard boating community around the Fen Waterways."

Fr David is also a Conservator of the River Cam, the statutory navigation authority between Bottisham Lock in Waterbeach and the Mill Pond in Cambridge, including the famous 'Backs' as the river runs past several historic Colleges.

At the OCAC UK synod in 2024, Fr David was appointed as Superior of the Benedictines of the Holy Spirit a religious order to promote the Benedictine Charism in today's world.