ODDI WRTH YR ESGOB...
FROM THE BISHOP...
Bishop John writes his Ad Clerum to the clergy of the Diocese every month. You can read the text on this page.
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Letter to the parishes - read on June 1st
The Lambeth Conference 2008
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May 2008
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February 2008
December 2007
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October 2007
JUNE 2008
Dear Friends,
I wish to inform you that I shall be retiring from stipendiary ministry and resigning as bishop of St Asaph in December 2008. By this time I will be in my tenth year as diocesan bishop and two months short of my 66th birthday. The end of the liturgical year seems to be an appropriate time to cease public duties which means that I shall finish diocesan and provincial engagements on November 29th, allowing me time in December to prepare for a smooth handover. This has been a hard decision to make but having, for other reasons, already delayed the decision once, I am now able to give the diocese and the province six months’ notice.
If the decision to retire has been difficult so is this letter a difficult one to write. Quite how to express my appreciation of the support you have given me over the years and the happiness and sense of privilege I have felt, I do not know. Perhaps at this moment I shouldn’t try. So this is not a farewell letter and I would rather that the next six months were not to be a long goodbye, although I doubt I can avoid that. What I do want to say is that I consider myself very fortunate to have reached retirement age in good health and to be in a position of having a wonderful job to retire from and a good home to go to. Nevertheless I look to the end of the year with mixed emotions -- you build part of the story and then you have to let it go. And that’s life! So for me this is about the normal human processes of letting go at the right time and handing over to others.
As to what happens next, the election of a new bishop is in the hands of the Electoral College and that is likely to be meet in January. Before that happens the Archbishop will appoint a facilitator to meet the elected members of the college from this diocese to guide them through the period of preparation for the college. On my departure the Archbishop will also appoint a commissary to act on his behalf until a new bishop is in place. The Dean has kindly offered to hold a farewell service in the cathedral towards the end of November but the date has not yet been fixed.
I trust that this helps you to understand something of the way things will happen from now on. In the meantime, there is much to be done – not the least of the events ahead being the Lambeth Conference - and as I am confident of your continuing prayers for Joan and for me over the next six months, so I wish to assure you of my continuing support for you in our work together. I should be grateful if you would announce my retirement at all services in your parishes this coming Sunday, 1st June, and I attach a letter for you and those taking services to read.
And so, on to other matters…..
The diocesan conference takes place in the cathedral on Sunday 22nd June at 2.30pm. The focus of the main presentation will be a celebration of the diocese’s work with children and young people. There will also be short presentations of the work of Cruse (the recipient of this year’s diocesan offering), the pre-Lambeth hospitality initiative, parish websites, Investing in Mission programme, and the use of church building for the work of transforming communities and congregations.
We mourn the loss of Derek Milton who died last month after recently being diagnosed with cancer. Derek joined us from Monmouth diocese three years ago and we offer our thanksgiving for his life and our prayers for his parishioners in Montgomery, Forden and Llandyssil.
We say farewell at the end of July to Graham Canham and give thanks with him for the 50th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood. Graham has made a long and distinctive contribution to the life of this diocese not only in his parish and deanery work but also as vicar of the local chapter of the Society of the Sacred Cross and a former provincial master of the society. Graham’s courteous manner, preaching skills and pastoral wisdom have been the hallmarks of his long and rewarding ministry.
St Asaph is a Fairtrade Diocese but in order to retain that status we have to supply the necessary information requested from parishes some weeks ago. Please forward the information to Glenys at this office.
We are to advertise shortly for the posts of (a) Rector of Wrexham and (b) the Vicar of Meliden and Gwaenysgor.
Congratulations to Ginny Burton on her appointment as assistant priest in the grouped parishes of Colwyn Bay and Brynymaen.
Hellins Lecture – Anglicans and the Future of the Communion – given by Gregory Cameron, at the Dean’s Library, St Asaph, on Tuesday 17th June at 7 p.m.
+ John