Bishop of Lewes to be the Next Bishop of Hereford
10 Downing Street announced this morning that the suffragan Bishop of Lewes in the Diocese of Chichester, Richard Jackson, is to be the 106th Bishop of Hereford.
Bishop Richard is married to Deborah, a farmer’s daughter who grew up in the Cotswolds and is a learning support teacher. The couple have three children; Annabel, who’s a psychiatric nurse, Sam, who works in marketing and jazz musician, Charlie.
Bishop Richard has spent his entire ministry in the Diocese of Chichester and so the move to his new diocese will be a huge change: “I am immensely humbled to have been chosen to become the next Bishop of Hereford. This beautiful diocese is in my DNA. I’ve traced my family tree and if I took a journey visiting churches from Leominster to the Welsh Border, I would be able to see the graves of my ancestors dating back to the 13th Century.
“After 25 years serving in the Diocese of Chichester it will be very hard to leave such a beautiful place and the family of Christians I know and love well. Chichester Diocese is at an exciting phase in its life with great potential for future growth in knowing, loving and following Jesus.”
The Bishop of Chichester, Dr Martin Warner, issued the following statement this morning:
“Bishop Richard was ordained in this diocese and has spent his entire ministry here. We shall miss him and his wife Deborah greatly.
“In his time as Bishop of Lewes, Richard and Deborah have exercised an exceptionally generous ministry of hospitality – an outward expression of their pastoral and spiritual care for those with whom they share the Christian life. At the same time Richard has been imaginatively and generously engaged in turning our attention to the evangelistic and missional aspects of our vocation as a household of faith. He has encouraged this engagement across the whole spectrum of the diocese and done so with kindness, humour and flair”.
Bishop Richard’s new Diocese, Hereford is mainly rural, covering Herefordshire, the south of Shropshire, a portion of Worcestershire and several parishes in Wales on the English-Welsh border. It includes the city of Hereford and the towns of Telford, Ludlow, Much Wenlock, Bridgnorth, Church Stretton, Ross-on-Wye, Ledbury, Leominster, Bromyard and Kington. Click here for a link to the Media Release from the Diocese of Hereford for further information: Link Here