THE Acting Bishop of St Edmundsbury & Ipswich, the Rt Revd Graeme Knowles, has said that he wishes to construct on the legacy of the previous 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 can serve for one yr. The process to appoint the subsequent Bishop is “well under way”, the diocese said in a press release on Friday; and “there may be an expectation a recent everlasting Bishop may very well be in place sooner.”
Bishop Knowles said: “I would like to keep up and construct upon the legacy left by Bishop Martin who nurtured partnerships in farming, supporting young people, health, education, the military, and native politics.
“Bishop Martin ensured that the role of the Church throughout Suffolk strengthened its place in local communities and evolved to develop into more relevant in what’s 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 New York. He was ordained priest within the Church of England in 1979 and served his title at St Peter’s, Bottesford, within 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 got here back to England in 1990, serving as Vicar of the Isle of Dogs in London, and have become Principal of Westcott House, Cambridge, in 2006. He was consecrated Bishop of St Edmundsbury & Ipswich in 2015.
Bishop Knowles continued: “Now I would like to hold the Church forward, this will not be the time to face still, and to make it ready in eager expectation of the brand new Bishop arriving in order that once they arrive they find it fit for purpose and adapting to the ever-changing lifetime 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 Eighties, he was chaplain and precentor at Portsmouth Cathedral, before serving in parish ministry within 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 within the wake of the Occupy protests outside the cathedral (News, 4 November 2011). Since 2012, he has served as an honorary assistance bishop in Ely diocese.
