Hundreds of people attended an All-Age Thanksgiving Service at Ely Cathedral yesterday (Saturday 1st December) to celebrate the ministry of the former Bishop of Huntingdon, Dr John Inge who leaves the Diocese to become the new Bishop of Worcester.

In his sermon Bishop John Inge said, “It has been an enormous privilege for me to minister in this diocese for nearly twelve years. I have seen great things happen here when together and individually, we have been awake to what God would have us be and by infectious enthusiasm have spread abroad the Kingdom of God.

“I shall miss you all very greatly but encouraged and inspired by everything I have experienced here I go forward in faith and hope and love to seek to serve the Lord in a new place.”

At the end of the service the Bishop of Ely, Dr Anthony Russell praised Bishop John Inge for his “outstanding ministry” and wished the Bishop, his wife Denise and their two daughters every happiness in their new diocese. Presenting him with gifts from Ely Diocese, he said, “Bishop John has been an exemplary colleague and I thank him for serving the Diocese with such commitment, dedication and wisdom.”

Members of the Ely Cathedral Octagon Singers and musicians from the Lighthouse combined with the Cathedral Choir to provide the music. Children from the congregation danced in the aisles to the hymn Light of the World .

Dr John Inge, who has served in the diocese for eleven years, was appointed last July by Her Majesty the Queen to take up the Bishopric of the Worcester Diocese. The Bishop, who previously served in the Diocese of Newcastle, came to the Ely Diocese in 1996. He was a Residentiary Canon of the Cathedral from 1996 to 2003, and was consecrated as the Bishop of Huntingdon in the autumn of 2003.

For details and more information:

Canon Owen Spencer-Thomas
Bishops’ Press Officer
52 Windsor Road
Cambridge
CB4 3JN
Phone: 01223 358448
Mobile: 07801 492151
E-mail: owenst@btinternet.com

2nd December 2007
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