THE Acting Bishop of St Edmundsbury & Ipswich, the Rt Revd Graeme Knowles, has said that he wishes to build on the legacy of the former diocesan Bishop, the Rt Revd Martin Seeley, who retired on 1 March.
Bishop Knowles, 73, was installed in St Edmundsbury Cathedral earlier this month and will serve for one year. The process to appoint the next Bishop is “well under way”, the diocese said in a press release on Friday; and “there is an expectation a new permanent Bishop could be in place sooner.”
Bishop Knowles said: “I want to maintain and build upon the legacy left by Bishop Martin who nurtured partnerships in farming, supporting young people, health, education, the military, and local politics.
“Bishop Martin ensured that the role of the Church throughout Suffolk strengthened its place in local communities and evolved to become more relevant in what is a fast-moving world.”
Bishop Seeley, who turned 70 in May, had been diocesan bishop for ten years. He studied at Jesus College, Cambridge, then Ripon College, Cuddesdon. He then attended the Union Theological Seminary in Manhattan, New York City. He was ordained priest in the Church of England in 1979 and served his title at St Peter’s, Bottesford, in the diocese of Lincoln.
In 1980, he returned to the US to be a curate of the Church of the Epiphany, before becoming executive director of the Thompson Center, an ecumenical lay and clergy education programme in St Louis, Missouri. He came back to England in 1990, serving as Vicar of the Isle of Dogs in London, and became Principal of Westcott House, Cambridge, in 2006. He was consecrated Bishop of St Edmundsbury & Ipswich in 2015.
Bishop Knowles continued: “Now I want to carry the Church forward, this is not the time to stand still, and to make it ready in eager expectation of the new Bishop arriving so that when they arrive they find it fit for purpose and adapting to the ever-changing life of today’s people.”
He trained for ordination at St Augustine’s College, Canterbury, was ordained priest in 1975, and served titles in St Peter-in-Thanet in Canterbury diocese and at St Peter’s, Leeds. In the 1980s, he was chaplain and precentor at Portsmouth Cathedral, before serving in parish ministry in the diocese. He was Dean of Carlisle before being consecrated as Bishop of Sodor & Man in 2003. He became the Dean of St Paul’s in 2007, and resigned in 2011 in the wake of the Occupy protests outside the cathedral (News, 4 November 2011). Since 2012, he has served as an honorary assistant bishop in Ely diocese.