News Release
Issued 19.6.09 For immediate use
Harrogate Rector announced as new Bishop of Horsham
A Harrogate rector and General Synod member has been named as the next Bishop of Horsham, in the Diocese of Chichester. The appointment of the Revd Mark Sowerby, Team Rector at St Wilfrid's, Harrogate, was announced by Downing Street at 11am this morning (Friday, June 19th).
A native Yorkshireman, Mr Sowerby, (45), has served as incumbent of St Wilfrid’s church since 2001, and became its Team Rector in 2004 when it was established as a team ministry.
The Revd Mark Sowerby read theology at King’s College, London before training at the College of the Resurrection, Mirfield. He was ordained deacon in 1987 and then priest in 1988 in Ripon Cathedral where he had also been baptised. He was a curate at Knareborough and then after a second curacy in Darwen with Tockholes (Blackburn Diocese), he became vicar of a parish in the mill town of Accrington where he was also chaplain to nearby St Christopher’s CE High School and to Accrington Victoria Hospital. A period as Assistant Diocesan Director of Ordinands led on to a national role as a Selection Secretary and Vocations Officer .
Speaking of his appointment, Mark said “I am as delighted as I am surprised to be moving to Chichester diocese as Area Bishop of Horsham. The Diocese of Chichester, like the Diocese of Ripon, was first founded by Saint Wilfrid, a man with a passion for church unity but little personal warmth. I am glad to be going to assist the present Bishop of Chichester who shares Wilfrid's longing for Christian unity though also with the personal warmth that the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds has come to appreciate in Wilfrid's successor here. I am very much looking forward to getting to know the people of West Sussex and to working with Bishop John Hind in the service of Christ and his people. I shall, of course, miss the people of St Wilfrid's Harrogate more than I can say.”
Since 2001, when he returned to the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds, Mark has served on the Diocesan Synod, the General Synod, and the Ministry Council of the Church of England as well as on the council of the theological college at Mirfield. For the last five years, he has also served as one of the House of Bishops’ Inspectors of Theological Colleges and courses.
The Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, the Rt Revd John Packer, said that he was a grateful for Mark’s ministry in the diocese. “I am very pleased for Mark, and want to wish him his wife Ruth and their family our prayers as they move to Chichester Diocese. We are very grateful for the effective ministry of St Wilfrid’s church which Mark has led since 2001. I am confident that he will show those gifts of encouragement and generosity which we have experienced here on a wider stage as Area Bishop of Horsham.”
Mark is married to Ruth, an experienced RS teacher, and they have three teenage daughters, Bethan, Pippa and Anna. Among their hobbies they list cooking – Ruth has appeared on Gordon Ramsey’s “The F Word” - together with opera, both musical and soap.
ENDS