Bishop of Dover to retire

THE Bishop of Dover and Canterbury will retire this year.

The Rt Revd Dr Stephen Venner, who has been in his role since 1999, will leave in November.

He plans to move to Rochester with wife Judy, a senior early years advisor for Kent County Council.

Dr Venner, 64, will have served the Diocese for ten years, undertaking a full range of duties on behalf of Archbishop George Carey and, since 2003, Archbishop Rowan Williams. He is the first Bishop of Dover to be an ex-officio member of the House of Bishops.

Dr Venner was educated in Dorchester and the Universities of Birmingham, Oxford and London. He qualified and worked as a teacher after serving his first curacy in South London.

He became Pro-Chancellor of Christ Church University Canterbury in 2005 and is also a member of Kent's Strategic Partnership and Interim Chair of Kent's Children's Trust Board. He has been Bishop for the Falkland Islands since 2003.

He said: "I had no idea when I began this process how very emotionally and spiritually demanding it would be to make a decision about retirement. Leaving the Diocese and its people, whom I have come to love and admire, will be even harder.

"But I believe that it is right to leave now, after 10 years.

"The time for us to bid farewell is several months away, and I know that in the meantime we shall continue to discover what God is doing among us, and to seek to join in."

The early announcement means moves can be made to appoint a successor. The diocesan Vacancy in See Committee will oversee the drafting of a Statement of Needs, and a group representing that Committee and the National Church will work with the Archbishop to fill the post. It is hoped a new Bishop will be named later this year and take up his duties in the first half of 2010.