Mentor Bishop during the trans-formation process, will become

the interim Area Bishop of Bradford. The Archbishop has also appointed Bishop Tom as the Chair of the Shadow Board of Finance for the new Diocese.

Permanent appointments for the Bradford and Huddersfield areas will be made by the new Diocesan Bishop of Leeds once he has taken up his role.

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Archbishop appoints interim area bishops

Steps towards a new diocese

The Transformation Programmefor the Diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales

April 20th, Easter Day 2014, will be the day on which we become the Diocese of Leeds, to be known as West Yorkshire and the Dales – and Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York has nominated three interim bishops to run the five Episcopal Areas from that day until permanent appoint-ments are made.

Bishop James Bell, currently Bishop of Knares-borough will become the Area Bishop

for the Ripon Episcopal Area but also interim Area Bishop for Leeds.

Bishop Tony Robin-son, the Bishop of Ponte-fract will become

the Area Bishop for Wakefield and also take on the role as interim Area Bishop of Hud-dersfield.

Bishop Tom Butler, the former Bishop of Southwark, who has taken on the role of

Focus on Prayer

January 9/10th: Meeting of the Crown Nominations Com-mission to choose the Bishop of Leeds – announcement expected February.

Lent 2014: Prayer-focussed events in Lent within each deanery to encourage thought and ideas about the shape and nature of the new diocese.

April 20th Easter Day: Appointed day on which the new Diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales is created and the present dioceses dissolved. A new Diocesan Board of Finance

comes into being and the new diocese is ‘operational, viable and legal’.

April 28th: The College of Canons for the three Cathedrals formally elects the Bishop of Leeds.

June 8th: Pentecost. Celebra-tion for the new diocese at York Minster, 4pm, with the Inaugu-ration and Confirmation of Elec-tion of the Diocesan Bishop.

June/ July: Enthronement ser-vices in the three Cathedrals for the new Bishop of Leeds.

Each month in this section we include a prayer for the new diocese.

Loving God, pour upon us, we pray, your Holy Spirit and prepare us for the new Diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales; send us a bishop to lead and encourage us; foster bonds of love that cross old boundaries; open our hearts and minds to new possibilities of welcome, witness and mis-sion; and grant wisdom to all who shape our future in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

January 2014 edition

www.wyadtransformation.org

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Bradford is the youngest city in England with 20% of the population under 14. Attrac-tions in the new Episcopal Area include Haworth and the Brontë family home and museum, Ilkley Moor and the Cow and Calf rocks, Bradford’s National Media Museum, the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway and the Titus Salt model village of Saltaire, now a World Heritage Site.

The Wakefield Episcopal Area includes Wakefield, Pontefract and Barnsley and attrac-tions include the Yorkshire

Sculpture Park, the Hepworth Gallery, Pontefract Castle, Cannon Hall, and Nostell Priory.

Ripon Area includes Harro-gate, Knaresborough, Ripon, Richmond and Wetherby, Skipton, Settle and Barnolds-wick and will cover approxi-mately 1581 square miles with a population 282,000. It is famous for the Yorkshire Dales National Park, Fountains Abbey, Harrogate Conference Centre, Catterick Garrison, Swaledale Sheep and Wens-leydale Cheese.

Next month more facts from Leeds and Huddersfield.

Did you know?

Each month, a senior leader shares their thoughts as we move towards the new diocese.

“Night is drawing nigh - For all that has been - Thanks!For all that will be - Yes!”

Those often quoted words from Dag Hammarskjold’s Markings seem particularly apt at the turn of the year, as we prepare for the dissolution of our three dioceses and the inception of the Diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales.

Hammarskjold, who was the UN Secretary General, was also a person of faith. His words offer a succinct but profound insight into Christian faith. Firstly, it is marked by thanks, thanksgiving, thankful-ness. There will be particular opportunities to give thanks in all three dioceses for the diocesan bishops and for the particular histories, cultures and contributions of each diocese. But the main thing is the attitude of thankfulness which needs to be constantly, habitually expressed in words and deeds. It should be one of the foremost distinguishing marks of Christian community.

Alongside thanks, Christian faith is marked by the “yes” that embraces God’s calling, God’s gifts, that welcomes

others, that recognises new opportunities and fresh pos-sibilities and that rises to new challenges. Jesus was a yes man - yes to God, yes to those in need, yes to those who wanted to follow, yes to the outcasts and rejects of society and religion. Christians often come across as no people: can we be yes people?

There is a great opportunity to say yes to the new diocese at the Inauguration service on Pentecost Sunday, 8th June in York Minster at 4pm. But being yes people will mean some hard work for us all as we engage in the changes required to form our new diocese and create something new for God’s mission for our world. Markings starts with a poem that begins:

“I am being driven forwardInto an unknown land.The pass grows steeper,The air colder and sharper.A wind from my unknown goalStirs the strings of expecta-tion.”

As we move forward into new and uncharted territory, may the wind of the Spirit stir up expectation in us all!

Thanks and Yes Bishop James Bell

for eight years. He has also worked as a mission-ary in Uganda, taught New Testament, System-atic Theology and Missiology and served as a rec-tor of two rural parishes. David says, “The new Episcopal Area provides a great opportunity for partnership with the local authority… We seek new ways of the church relating to the wider community which will lead to steady growth in numbers and in morale and to us being a bless-ing to Bradford Metropolitan District.”

The Archdeacon of Craven Ven Paul Slater who has been the Arch-deacon of Craven in the Bradford diocese since 2005, will become Arch-deacon of Richmond and Craven when the new diocese is created. Paul has served all his ministry in the Bradford Dio-cese including as Rector of Haworth. Paul went to school in Bradford, and after graduating from Corpus Christi, Oxford, he worked at St George’s Crypt in Leeds before training for the ministry. Married with two grown up sons, Paul is keen on tennis and cricket.

The Archdeacon of Pon-tefract Ven Peter Town-ley was vicar of St Mary le Tower, Ipswich’s civic church, for nearly 11 years before taking up his role as Archdeacon of Pontefract in 2008. Peter writes, “Blessed with the Cathedral at the heart our City and this Area including the two great Yorkshire towns of Pontefract and Barnsley we look forward with excitement to all the new challenges and oppor-tunities laid before us.”

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Meet the Archdeacons

The Archdeacon of Leeds Ven Paul Hooper who is married with three sons has served in Ripon and Leeds throughout his ordained ministry, including as Vicar of St Mark’s Church Harrogate for more than 14 years. He left Harrogate in 2009 when he was appointed to a pioneering role as Director of Clergy Development and then became Archdeacon in 2011. “We are also greatly looking forward to working with all the parishes who will form the new Leeds Archdeaconry,” says Paul, “as we work together on building the life and witness of the church and city.”

The Archdeacon of Halifax Ven Dr Anne Dawtry moved from the Manchester diocese where she was a vicar to become Archdea-con of Halifax two and a half years ago. She studied at London University and lectured in History and Heritage Management at University College Chester before ordination. In her spare time Anne is a keen photographer of anything architectural. Anne says, “We hope that the new Diocese will bring about a new energy for the work of God across the region and enable resources to be more focussed for mis-sion in each area.”

The Archdeacon of Bradford Ven David Lee has been Archdeacon of Bradford since 2004. Before coming to Bradford he had been Residentiary Canon and Director of Mission for the Diocese of Birmingham

Keeping a steadying hand on the tiller as the three dioceses move towards the new Diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales will be our five archdeacons, already in post and providing much needed continuity during the transformation process.

News......News.....News.....News.....News.....News

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Interim Chancellor - ‘It’s business as usual’

The Tour de France unites the new diocese

WYAD Transformation Programme news

An event next summer which could help bring the new diocese together will be one of the world’s most spec-tacular sporting events. The Tour de France, the world’s greatest cycle race, starts in Yorkshire on 5th and 6th July 2014 bringing millions of fans to our region to cheer on the champions of the sport. With the recent success of British riders, the popularity of cy-cling in this country has never been greater.

The first two days of the race take the huge event from Leeds to Harrogate through

the Yorkshire Dales and via three episcopal areas: Leeds, Bradford and Ripon. Stage Two is from York to Sheffield, again via three episcopal areas: Ripon, Bradford and Huddersfield. Many churches

The Archbishop of York has just announced the appoint-ment of John Bullimore, a retired circuit judge and the Chancellor for Blackburn and Derby dioceses, as Act-ing Chancellor for the new diocese of West Yorkshire and The Dales.

Mr Bullimore, who is married to a retired parish priest and former rural dean in the Wakefield diocese and

lives in the Huddersfield area, says his appointment is an interim appointment basically

to ensure business as usual.

He will act as the chancel-lor from the Appointed Day, Easter Day 2014, when the new diocese comes into being. The Chancellor of a diocese is the person who is legally responsible for ap-proving proposed changes to churches or churchyards after consultation with the Dioc-esan Advisory Committee and interested parties, and acts as a judge on such applications where there is a dispute. As Chancellor for Blackburn and Derby dioceses, Mr Bullimore said he would expect to deal with around 160 applications a year, but it was too early to

try and estimate how busy he might be in the new diocese.

“The appointment is an in-terim appointment, simply to ensure things run as smoothly as they can in the new diocese up until the new bishop ap-points a chancellor,” he said.

A former circuit judge in Shef-field, Mr Bullimore has sat on criminal, family and general common law cases. When he is not spending time with his four grandchildren or walking his dogs, Mr Bullimore still sits as a judge from time to time and undertakes his work as Chancellor.

are already gearing up with plans for hospitality, displays and events. A special website with more information, and where churches can submit their plans, can be found atwww.lechurchletour.org.