Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
April 28, 2010
One of the Church of England's top bishops, the Bishop of Durham Dr Tom Wright, is to retire eight years early to return to academic life it emerged yesterday.
Dr Wright, 61, who will take a chair at St Andrew's in Fife in September, soon after his 62nd birthday, could in theory have remained at Durham until he was 70.
As Bishop for the evangelical centre, and one of the top five Church of England bishops, he carries authority because of his position but also has added value by virtue of his skills of communication and of intellect.
He will be badly missed by his troubled Church, where he has served as the leading voice attempting to help Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, maintain unity from the evangelical side. Dr Wright has been a figurehead for centrist evangelicals who wish to uphold Gospel truths while remaining within the mainstream Anglican Communion, currently facing divisions over the ordination of homosexuals.
Dr Wright, who decided to return to academic life after enjoying a sabbatical at Princeton enabled him to complete a seminal new work on St Paul, said: "This has been the hardest decision of my life. It has been an indescribable privilege to be bishop of the ancient Diocese of Durham, to work with a superb team of colleagues, to take part in the work of God's kingdom here in the North East, and to represent the region and its churches in the House of Lords and in General Synod.
"I have loved the people, the place, the heritage and the work. But my continuing vocation to be a writer, teacher and broadcaster, for the benefit, I hope, of the wider world and Church, has been increasingly difficult to combine with the complex demands and duties of a diocesan bishop. I am very sad about this, but the choice has become increasingly clear."
The initiatives he has pioneered include the Big Read programme, which brought together people across the North East to read the Bible in Lent. This programme will go national next year, with Dr Wright's new text, Lent for Everyone: Matthew, the study material.
Church sources denied that he was leaving because of a question mark over the future of the home of the bishops of Durham, the historic Auckland Castle, up for review this autumn.
A source said he had loved his recent sabbatical at Princeton where he worked on his book on St Paul, and he no longer wished "to ride three horses at once". During the sabbatical, the source said, he "came alive" and "looked and sounded like a professor again".
A Church of England spokesman said: "We review See palaces when bishops get to 62. Tom Wright will be 62 in the autumn. Therefore the review will go ahead in the autumn as planned. The last two or three reviews of Auckland Castle resulted in a decision against selling it. So no prejudging."
Dr Wright has been a contributor to the Fulcrum website for the evangelical centre, where one of the founders, Dr Graham Kings, now a bishop himself, said: "A New Testament scholar of international renown, Tom Wright's substantial contribution to the House of Bishops will be greatly missed. The good news is that his multi-volume series of New Testament theology can now be completed."
Dr Wright, who is married and has four children, is to become Research Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity.
Professor Ivor Davidson of St Andrews said: "Tom Wright ranks among the most distinguished New Testament scholars in the world, and his profile as a churchman, writer and communicator is simply outstanding. I am delighted that he will be joining us at St Andrews, where he will further enhance the long-established reputation of the School of Divinity as a major international centre of biblical and theological scholarship.'
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams said that the Bishop of Durham 'will be greatly missed'. He said: "Bishop Tom has given generously of his extraordinary gifts in the life of his diocese and the Church of England at large, and he will be greatly missed by his fellow bishops."
As Bishop of Durham, Dr Wright has spoken in the House of Lords frequently. Most recently he has championed the cause of new underground technology for the clean use of coal from the region's still massive coalfields.
He has also taken a lead in debating issues surrounding constitutional reform. Within the wider Anglican world he was a member of the 2004 Commission that produced the Windsor Report on the future of the Anglican Communion, and was the Archbishop of Canterbury's special representative at the Roman Catholic Synod of Bishops in 2008.
Together with his wife, Maggie, he has developed a close relationship with HMS Bulwark, which is twinned with Co Durham, culminating in a seminar on board which brought together leading theologians and military personnel to discuss issues of war, peace and faith. He has worked hard to develop friendships and partnerships with Christians of all denominations. He has spoken frequently on radio and television, including writing and presenting a series of radio meditations and music and television programmes on the resurrection and on the problem of evil.
As a writer, Bishop Tom has been working on three series of books ? Christian Origins and the Question of God, The New Testament for Everyone and a sequence of studies to introduce the Christian faith, Simply Christian, Surprised by Hope and most recently Virtue Reborn. He hopes now to be able to complete these collections, and other research, while teaching in the Faculty of Divinity at St Andrews. He has also been approached to head up various broadcasting projects to bring the results of good biblical scholarship to a wider audience.
A new bishop will be selected later this year by the Crown Nominations Commission. Its choice will be sent to the prime minister and Queen for approval.
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