Fr Lawrence Lew OP

Fr Lawrence Lew is the Chaplain for Blackfriars Hall, Oxford. He is the global Promoter General for the Holy Rosary, overseeing the growth and promotion of the Rosary Confraternity for the worldwide Dominican Order. In particular he has a love for Our Lady of the Rosary at Fatima, and a promotes the message and lessons of Fatima.

Until 2023, he had served as Rector of the Rosary Shrine in London, where he worked with EWTN and Shalom TV to raise the international profile of London’s largest Marian shrine. Concurrently, Fr Lawrence had served a full term as Prior of the Dominican community in London and he was also Parish Priest of a busy north London parish. Since his ordination in 2011 Fr Lawrence has also served as assistant university chaplain in Edinburgh, Spiritual Director to the Legion of Mary Curia in Westminster Diocese, National Chaplain to the ‘Scouts and Guides of Europe’ in England, and he has been lector in Apologetics, in Digital Media, and in Mariology at Blackfriars Studium in Oxford.

Fr Lawrence was born in 1977 in Malaysia to a devout Protestant family, and he became a Catholic in Singapore where he was taught by De La Salle brothers. He has lived and ministered in Asia, North America, and Europe. He has a degree in English civil law from the University of Leeds, and was trained for priestly ministry in Durham, Cambridge and Oxford, and he obtained his License in Sacred Theology from the Dominican House of Studies in Washington DC.

As Promoter General of the Rosary, he is a member of the Dominican Order’s General Curia but uniquely he is not resident in Rome. Instead, Fr Lawrence is currently based in Blackfriars, Oxford, from where he travels throughout the world giving Marian and Rosary-themed mission talks, retreats, and workshops. In October 2025 he was spiritual guide for the ‘Exodus 90’ Rosary challenge.

Fr Lawrence’s photographs of sacred art and architecture have become prominent on social media, and have been seen in newspapers, magazines, book covers, and his own books. His third book, Entering Heaven on Earth: Signs, Symbols & Saints in Catholic Churches was published in Autumn 2024 by Our Sunday Visitor and by CTS in 2025. It won an award in the 2025 Catholic Media Association Book Awards. His other books are Mysteries Made Visible published by Ignatius Press in 2022, and Lenten Devotions published by the CTS in 2023.

Fr Lawrence is currently working with EWTN on a documentary series on his travels and photography, which is combined with a book tie-in, and he has just finished filming a pioneering series of short videos on sacred art and architecture for the Catholic Truth Society.

Email: lawrence.lew@english.op.org