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UK news in brief

by
23 March 2018

DIOCESE OF LICHFIELD

Bishop Mark Rylands

Bishop Mark Rylands

Bishop of Shrewsbury to return to parish ministry

THE Bishop of Shrewsbury since 2009, the Rt Revd Mark Rylands, who is 56, is to resign in July and return to parish ministry, in the diocese of Exeter, where he will be Priest-in-Charge in the Ashburton and Moorland Team Ministry. He will also be an Assistant Bishop in the diocese. “It will be sad to leave. And for some it may seem a surprise move,” he said. “But, for me, I have sensed God’s beckoning to serve as a parish priest again. For the last 16 years, as both diocesan missioner and area bishop, much of my ministry has been to encourage, challenge, and help churches and church leaders to embody and share the good news of Jesus Christ in the local community. I have heard God calling me now to ‘go and walk the talk’.” From 2002 to 2009, he was Canon Missioner of Exeter Cathedral. His wife, Prebendary Mandy Rylands, retired last year.

 

Lambeth 2020 theme is announced

THE theme of the Lambeth Conference in 2020 will be “God’s Church for God’s World: walking, listening and witnessing together”. The Conference website, launched this week, confirms that it will take place from 24 July to 3 August at the University of Kent at Canterbury. More than 900 bishops from around the world will be invited to attend, with their spouses. lambethconference.org

 

Stephen Hawking’s ashes to be interred in Abbey

THE ashes of Professor Stephen Hawking are to be buried in Westminster Abbey, near the grave of Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin, during a service of thanksgiving to be held later in the year. It was “entirely fitting”, the Dean, the Very Revd John Hall, said. “Sir Isaac Newton was buried in the Abbey in 1727. Charles Darwin was buried beside Isaac Newton in 1882. Other famous scientists are buried or memorialised near by, the most recent burials being those of atomic physicists Ernest Rutherford in 1937 and Joseph John Thomson in 1940. We believe it to be vital that science and religion work together to seek to answer the great questions of the mystery of life and of the universe.”

 

Man of parts to direct RSCM

THE Royal School of Church Music has appointed Derby Cathedral’s director of music, Hugh Morris, as its next director. He has worked at Salisbury Cathedral, Hexham Abbey, and Christchurch Priory. He read music at Cambridge and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists. While at Derby, he has collaborated on choral ventures with classical, folk, and jazz musicians, besides composing new music himself. He will take up his new post in the summer.

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