It was a very special privilege to gather last week with clergy and some of our lay leaders from across the diocese for our tri-annual Diocesan Clergy Conference. As the Church, we are charged in this time to share God’s love and to work for the coming of the Kingdom. So we return from the conference recommitted to sharing in this great commission with you, with the whole baptised people of God and with partners of goodwill across our communities.
Tag: bishopsletter
Raising awareness of domestic abuse: A message from Bishop Rachel
Bishop Robert and I welcome the new e-learning module called ‘Raising awareness of Domestic Abuse’.
Message from Bishop Rachel, 27 September 2022
Next month is International Black History Month and it leaves me feeling uneasy. It’s not because I don’t agree with bringing Black history into the frame or ensuring that so many stories about people and places are made visible, or that we are challenged regarding racial justice; rather, my uneasiness is because it can look as if people only need to think about all these things for one month of every year.
Message from Bishop Robert, 20 September 2022
It will be a great joy to welcome our Reader community to the Cathedral this coming Saturday for our Annual Reader Day and, in the afternoon, our Annual Service during which Bishop Rachel will be admitting three new Readers who have now completed their training.
Readers have a long and distinguished history of ministry and play a significant part in the ministry of the church today and we owe them a great debt of thanks. Of course, their ministry is significant for all they do in preaching, teaching, pastoral care and, more recently, in pioneer ministry. It is, however, equally significant for what Readers are.
Message from Bishop Rachel, 13 September 2022
Last Tuesday, many of us were looking at pictures of Her Late Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, receiving our new Prime Minister. Amid a time of yet more political upheaval and economic uncertainty, the Queen was there – that figure of constancy and unity. Then, just 48 hours later, everything changed, and this Tuesday we find ourselves mourning the death of a beloved Queen.
A message to our worshipping communities from Bishop Rachel on the death of Queen Elizabeth II
“It is with deep sadness that we hear the news of the Queen’s death. As our sense of loss ripples out across the nation, Commonwealth and world, we give thanksContinue reading
Message from Bishop Robert, 6 September 2022
For those of us who seek to follow Jesus Christ, this is where our hope and our confidence is to be found – a hope and confidence that will allow us to speak a different story, that will challenge the narrative of gloom and doom that seems all pervasive.
A post-Lambeth message from Bishop Rachel and Bishop Robert
It has been an enormous privilege for us both to be part of the Lambeth Conference which gathered some 650 Anglican Bishops and 450 spouses from across the world atContinue reading
The Lambeth Conference
Last week, Bishop Robert wrote about the Lambeth Conference and now we are here in Canterbury, alongside the Bishops from our partner dioceses. There are about 700 Bishops from all over the world, plus about 500 spouses and ecumenical guests, and it is a privilege to encounter one another and hear about contexts very different from our own, with challenges we can only begin to imagine.
Message from Bishop Robert, 26 July 2022
Bishop Rachel and I have our bags packed and we are about to head off to Canterbury to join some 650 other bishops and 450 bishops’ spouses from around the globe for the Lambeth Conference, the gathering of Anglican bishops that has taken place every 10 years or so since 1867.
Message from Bishop Rachel, 19 July 2022
As the academic year draws to a close, I have been reflecting on some of my visits and events this term. Some of those have been wonderful visits to primaryContinue reading
Message from Bishop Robert, 12 July 2022
In our Gospel reading last Sunday we encountered (Luke 10 v 25f) a lawyer who puts to Jesus one of, perhaps the most, fundamental questions of human existence. ‘What’ he asks, ‘must I do to inherit eternal life?’
Message from Bishop Rachel, 5 July 2022
This Friday, hundreds of people from across the country will gather in York for the four-day summer meeting of the General Synod of the Church of England. From this diocese, this will include me, three elected clergy members and four elected lay members.
Message from Bishop Robert, 28 June 2022
One of the priorities that Bishop Rachel and I share with the Archdeacons, is to spend time with benefices that are ‘in vacancy’ when we can. I don’t really like the word ‘vacancy’. It’s better than ‘interregnum’, between two ‘rulers’
Message from Bishop Rachel, 21 June 2022
Monday was World Refugee Day and it was a privilege to be at the unveiling of a blue plaque in Gloucester marking the house where 10 Jewish boys were given a home in 1939 when they arrived in England on the Kinder Transport escaping Nazi oppression…
Message from Bishop Robert, 14 June 2022
This coming weekend our Cathedral will be a place of great excitement and busyness as we celebrate the ordination of new deacons and priests.
Message from Bishop Rachel
I want to say thank you to YOU. Thank you for shining Christ’s light in so many different ways across the landscape of your week. Thank you to those who lead in many different ways and in different contexts, when it’s joyous and when it’s tough. Thank you to those who live Christ’s love often in unsung ways and amid the ups and downs of daily life. Thank you to those who pray and encourage.
Message from Bishop Rachel, 31 May 2022
Sometimes a number of things come together at the same time. This Sunday is one of those occasions as we celebrate Pentecost and the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. Both will involve a ‘coming together’, and I am greatly looking forward to being out in the Diocese in different places with different people of all ages…
Message from Bishop Robert, 24 May 2022
The feast of the Ascension which we celebrate on Thursday has become rather overlooked in recent years. Where once schools would close to allow children to attend church and the community would come together to celebrate, the day largely gets lost in the middle of an ordinary working week.
Message from Bishop Robert, 17 May 2022
A new feature of my recent visits to some of our schools has been to learn about how children and staff are welcoming Ukrainian children to their community. The hospitalityContinue reading
This week’s message from Bishop Rachel
Next week is Christian Aid week (May 15-21) and the focus is on drought and famine
Message from Bishop Robert, 3 May 2022
One of the enormous privileges of the ministry in which Bishop Rachel and I share in this Diocese, is to preside over services of Confirmation…
Message from Bishop Robert, 26 April 2022
What can you do in an hour? Walk the dog, read the paper, take a long bath… or make a difference to our planet?
Message from Bishop Rachel, 12 April 2022
Recently the word disruption has been much in my thoughts. It is not only the continuing impact of covid, or those horrific scenes in Ukraine, or the images of lorriesContinue reading
