THE next Bishop of Exeter shall be the Suffragan Bishop of Dunwich, in St Edmundsbury & Ipswich diocese, Dr Mike Harrison, it was announced on Tuesday morning.
He was consecrated bishop in February 2016. Last 12 months, Dr Harrison’s home in Suffolk was flooded during Storm Babet (News, 23 October 2023).
He studied mathematics on the University of Cambridge, before training for ordination at Ripon College, Cuddesdon. He was ordained deacon in 1990 and served his title at St Anne and All Saints, South Lambeth, in Southwark diocese,.
After 4 years within the diocese of Bradford (now a part of the diocese of Leeds) as a university chaplain, he returned to Southwark as Vicar of Holy Trinity, Eltham, from 1998 until 2006, when he was appointed Director of Mission and Ministry in Leicester diocese. He also serves because the Diocesan Warden of Readers and licensed lay ministers.
On Tuesday, the Bishop of St Edmundsbury & Ipswich, the Rt Revd Martin Seeley, said that Dr Harrison had arrived in Suffolk with “a keen focus upon mission and evangelism, discipleship, engaging children and young people, and cultivating vocations.
‘‘He has admirably delivered on these guarantees and his care and compassion for the communities in Suffolk have shown through — particularly through the difficult years of the pandemic, economic downturns and international conflicts.”
The Bishop of Crediton, the Rt Revd Jackie Searle, who has been Acting Bishop of Exeter because the retirement of the Rt Revd Robert Atwell (News, 12 May 2023), congratulated Dr Harrison.
“He comes with wide and varied experience that’s hugely relevant to our diocese, a energetic and attractive faith in Jesus Christ, and a present for leadership in mission. He shall be an excellent Bishop of Exeter and I look ahead to working with him,” she said.
Dr Harrison said that he was “looking forward to providing oversight, pastoral care, prayer, fellowship, and partnership within the gospel across the entire breadth of the diocese.
“We are a broad church with a diversity of traditions and views, and I’m committed to working together and being united in our shared mission to grow in prayer, make recent disciples and serve the people of Devon with joy.”
Last 12 months, in a joint statement with Bishop Seeley, Dr Harrison expressed his support for the introduction of blessings for same-sex couples. They wrote that, through the Living in Love and Faith process, they’d “each reached the view that the faithful, pastoral, loving and just way forward is to increase Holy Matrimony to same-sex couples”.
