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Bishops

Bishop of Norwich

The Rt Revd Graham Usher

Contact details

bishop@dioceseofnorwich.org

Post: Bishop’s House, Norwich, NR3 1SB

PA: Sophie Bell sophie.bell@dioceseofnorwich.org / Tel: 01603 629001

Bishop’s Chaplain: Revd Canon Sally Theakston bishops.chaplain@dioceseofnorwich.org

Researcher to Lead Bishop on the Environment: Rachel Sowerby  rachel.sowerby@dioceseofnorwich.org

Assistant Secretary: Brenna Wells brenna.wells@dioceseofnorwich.org

Finance and Facilities Assistant: Louise Cumberland louise.cumberland@dioceseofnorwich.org

Head Gardener: Harriet Boyd harriet.boyd@dioceseofnorwich.org

Bishop Graham became the 72nd Bishop of Norwich on 17 June 2019 and was formally welcomed at his enthronement service in Norwich Cathedral on 9 November 2019.

Prior to his appointment as Bishop of Norwich, he was Bishop of Dudley from 2014 – 2019.

Bishop Graham began life as an ecologist and was appointed lead bishop on the environment by the Archbishop of Canterbury in June 2021. He has been a member of the Anglican Consultative Council since 2020, a Church Commissioner since 2022, and a member of the Council of St George’s House Windsor Castle since 2023. In October 2023 he took his seat in the House of Lords as a Lord Spiritual and spoke about Norfolk’s biodiversity in his maiden speech. He was a member of the International Commission for Anglican Orthodox Theological Dialogue from 2017 to 2023, leading their work on agreed statements about the care of creation and the use of human organs in transplantation.

He is a keen beekeeper and regularly tweets @bishopnorwich. He has written about spirituality and landscape in Places of Enchantment, Meeting God in Landscapes, and his second book, The Way Under Our Feet: A Spirituality of Walking, was published in April 2020.

He is the patron or president of over 25 charities, mostly Norfolk-based.

You can watch his initial remarks following his announcement as Bishop of Norwich on YouTube, where he talks about the awe-inspiring Christian faith, the Christ-like humility we seek as Christians, and the calling of the Church to offer all that it can in love.

Bishop Graham is married to Rachel, a GP, and they have two adult children. He studied ecological science at the University of Edinburgh and theology at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, before training for ministry at Westcott House, Cambridge. Following his ordination as a deacon in 1996, he began his ministry in Middlesbrough in the Diocese of York, first as curate at St Mary the Virgin, Nunthorpe, and then as Vicar of Holy Trinity, North Ormesby, a parish with severe levels of social need and child poverty. In 2004 he became Rector of Hexham in the Diocese of Newcastle and had the additional responsibility of being Area Dean of Hexham between 2006 and 2011. In 2007 he was also appointed Honorary Canon of St Cyprian’s Cathedral in Kumasi, Ghana, the place of his early childhood. He has maintained an interest in biodiversity and landscapes, chairing the Forestry Commission’s Forestry and Woodlands Committee in the Northeast and being a Secretary of State appointee to the Northumberland National Park Authority when Rector of Hexham. From 2016 until 2020 he was a board member of the Human Tissue Authority.

Bishop of Thetford

The Rt Revd Ian Bishop

Contact details

bishop.thetford@dioceseofnorwich.org / Tel: 07715 102519

PA: Graham Cossey graham.cossey@dioceseofnorwich.org /Tel: 01953 528010

Post: Baysfield House, Silfield Road, Silfield, Wymondham NR18 9NW

Ian was born and brought up in Devizes in Wiltshire. After his first degree at Portsmouth Polytechnic, he qualified as a Chartered Surveyor and worked for Croydon Council and BAA.

He came to a living faith in Christ at University and quickly felt a call to ordained ministry. He trained at Oak Hill College and was ordained Deacon in Southwark Cathedral in 1991.

During his MA in Theology and Ministry from Durham University, he wrote his dissertation on the spiritual fruit of self control (Gal 5:23) with a specific focus on clergy adultery. This has given Ian a particular interest in the way the Church cares for divorced clergy spouses.

Ian served his curacy at Christ Church, Purley after which he became Priest in Charge of seven Norfolk village Churches in the Tas Valley, before moving to Chester Diocese in 2001 to become Rector of Middlewich and Byley and later also Rural Dean of Middlewich. In 2011 he was appointed Archdeacon of Macclesfield where he has led on projects around Race and Diversity and the Environment, as well as chairing Transforming Lives Together, a charity formed to tackle poverty in Cheshire.

Ian has been married to Sue for 36 years. Sue has thirty years experience in the charity sector and until moving to Norfolk has been Deputy Chief Executive Officer at Crewe YMCA. Sue is a qualified Life Coach and, in moving to Norfolk, is going freelance to support individuals through transformative journeys. Sue and Ian have three sons, Joe (a GP), Dan (ordained this year) and Will (an Actor/Writer) and two daughters in law, Anna (Teacher in Modern Foreign Languages) and Rachel (Registrar in Geriatric Medicine).

Ian and Sue have shared passions for the theatre and their motorhome.

Ian has stated he wants to be seen as pastoral and missional as he embarks on his new calling as Bishop of Thetford.  He was ordained as Bishop at Westminster Abbey on the 29 September 2023.

Bishop of Lynn

The Rt Revd Dr Jane Steen

Contact details

PA: Ann Whittet ann.whittet@dioceseofnorwich.org

Tel: 01362 709200

Post: The Bishop’s Office, Lynn House, Commercial Road, Dereham NR19 1AE

Bishop Jane was consecrated Suffragan Bishop of Lynn on 23 June 2021 at Norwich Cathedral. The Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, the Bishop of London, as Dean of the Province of Canterbury, presided over the service.

Born in 1964, Bishop Jane trained for ministry at Westcott House in Cambridge, where she read theology at Trinity College. Prior to this, she read English at Newnham College, Cambridge and her PhD is on Samuel Johnson’s Anglicanism. Jane has an LLM in Canon Law from the University of Cardiff.

She served her title in the Diocese of St Albans and then went on to be the Bishop of Southwark’s chaplain. In 2005 she was appointed Canon Chancellor of Southwark Cathedral and Director of Ministerial Education. Since 2013 and until her consecration as the Bishop of Lynn, she was the Archdeacon of Southwark.

She is married to Pip.