10 Downing Street announced this morning that the Queen has approved the nomination of the suffragan Bishop of Lewes in the Diocese of Chichester, Richard Jackson for the diocesan role at Hereford.
He will replace Rt Rev Richard Frith, who is retiring on 30th November, making Rev Jackson the 106th Bishop of Hereford.
Bishop Richard, 58, has spent his entire ministry in the Diocese of Chichester, serving at All Saints in Lindfield and Holy Trinity in Rudgwick and becoming Bishop of Lewes in 2014.
Bishop Richard said: "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."
Bishop Richard is a keen evangelist and has been funding for a sky dive to raise money for the Church Urban Fund and local church loneliness project Together In Sussex
The Bishop of Chichester, Dr Martin Warner, said of his departure: "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".
For those of you who pray this is happening. https://t.co/gl42Sl6Ugl
— Richard Jackson (@Rickthevic22) September 3, 2019
Hereford is mainly rural, covering Herefordshire, the south of Shropshire, a portion of Worcestershire and several parishes in Wales on the English-Welsh border.
Bishop Richard is married to Deborah and they have three children; Annabel, who's a psychiatric nurse, Sam, who works in marketing and jazz musician, Charlie.
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