Sims was son of clergyman the Reverend Sidney Sims and his wife Dorothy.[1] He was educated at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford and ordained priest in 1977.[2] After a curacy at Walmsley, Sutton Coldfield (1977–80),[3] he held his first incumbency as Vicar at Hay Mills, Birmingham (1980–88). He then served in Cumbria as Vicar of St Michael Stanwix with St Mark, Belah, Carlisle (1988–96), Rural Dean of Carlisle (1990–95), honorary Canon of Carlisle Cathedral (1991–96), priest-in-charge at All Hallows and Torpenhow, Boltonsgate with Ireby and Uldale, Bassenthwaite with Isel and Setmuir Pits (1996–2001), and Team Rector of Binsey Team Ministry (2001–03) and in Shropshire at Shrewsbury Abbey (2003–09), also serving as Rural Dean of Shrewsbury (2008–09)[1] before his appointment as Archdeacon.[4]
^‘SIMS, Ven. Christopher Sidney’, Who's Who 2014, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2014; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2013 ; online edn, Dec 2013 accessed 24 July 2014