Downing Street has announced this morning that The Rt Revd Christopher Chessun is to be the 10th Bishop of Southwark. He will succeed The Rt Revd Dr Tom Butler who retired in March. Consecrated Bishop in Southwark Cathedral on 21 April 2005, he is the Area Bishop of Woolwich, one of the three Episcopal Areas along with Kingston and Croydon in the Diocese of Southwark. He will be enthroned in Southwark Cathedral in the early part of 2011.
Bishop Christopher, 54, who is an identical twin, was also appointed as Bishop for Urban Life and Faith in May 2010. He will continue to hold this role as Bishop of Southwark.
Congratulations and blessings to Bishop Chessun! He's one of the diocese's own, so he won't take his throne as a stranger. (Aside: All churches with bishops should dump the phrase "enthronement". I don't care if the phrase is ancient and traditional, a bishop takes his position as a servant of the servants of Christ.)
I'm curious as to why the mention of the bishop being an identical twin is so prominent in the announcement. Perhaps, the reason is due to the possibility of photos of a person who looks very like the bishop being mistaken for the bishop.
H/T to Thinking Anglicans.
From the comments at TA:
Thank goodness he's not a wound on the church, like that awful Jeffrey John! (Irony alert!)
Oh dear. I meant for the post to be entirely serious, but it did not come out that way. In all sincerity, I pray for Bishop Chessun as he prepares to take up his new duties as Bishop of the Diocese of Southwark.
If you will excuse me for posting this link, Mimi, and read Fr Jass on the subject of the new bishop, together with comments on that thread, you will see that you may have taken the TA post a wee bit too seriously.
ReplyDeleteLapin, I don't like a link to Fr Jass. After all, he's said nasty things about me. But I will leave it.
ReplyDeleteDo I really need to add an irony alert to the comment from TA?
Now don't go and delete your comment, because I will have to delete mine.
Can it be possible that both of the last two diocesans appointed to the Church of England are what are sometimes termed in the UK confirmed bachelors?
ReplyDeleteAnd, of course, what I said about Fr Jass will send everyone rushing over there to see what he said about me, but his remarks were not at his blog, that I'm aware of, but at another blog, which I won't link to, and took place a good while ago.
ReplyDeleteThose confirmed bachelors, sometimes called bachelor uncles, often served their families in wonderful ways. I think of William Alexander Percy who took over the care of Walker Percy and his brothers after their parents died.
Walker and his two younger brothers, Phin and Roy, then moved to Greenville, Mississippi, where his bachelor uncle William Alexander Percy, a lawyer, poet, and autobiographer, became their guardian and adopted them.
From Wikipedia.
I also was involved with the Fr Jass (who was not called Fr Jass in those days) ruckus, so it was a LONG time ago.
ReplyDeleteLapin, for better or for worse, (Alas!) I sometimes have a LONG memory.
ReplyDeleteAs it happens, Christopher is my Area Bishop, so as Lay Chair I have had closer dealings with him than most laypeople in Southwark have.
ReplyDeleteAs my thoughts are too long for Blogger to digest, I have posted the rest of my thoughts on this appointment in my own personal blog. Sorry, Grandmère Mimi; I did not intend to steer people away but my thoughts got the better of me.
Chris, I know very little about the Diocese of Southwark, except that it is known to be a gay-friendly place and that the retiring bishop has the same name as my husband. Whenever I'd see "Bishop Tom Butler", I'd smile and think, "He wishes!"
ReplyDeleteThank you for your link to further my knowledge, and that of my readers, about the diocese. I wish you and all in the diocese well with your new bishop.