Following the announcement this week that the Bishop of Truro, the Rt Revd Philip Mounstephen is to leave in the autumn, Bishop Hugh sets out more information about what happens now in Truro.
With Bishop Philip leaving the diocese in September there will be an opportunity for parishioners to say goodbye at a service in Truro Cathedral in mid-September. At the end of that service Bishop Philip will hand over the pastoral staff to be kept in the care of the Dean of Truro and the cathedral until a new Diocesan Bishop is welcomed.
Bishop Hugh said: “We are going to miss Bishop Philip’s leadership and ministry amongst us, and he goes with our deep gratitude and with our richest of blessings.”
Keen to reassure
Bishop Hugh is keen to reassure those across the diocese that while some things will feel different when Bishop Philip leaves, much will remain the same: “We will keep on loving God and one another; we will share our faith and serve our communities; we will carry on implementing deanery plans and the diocesan plan for change and renewal, as we reshape patterns of ministry, as we engage more fully with children and young people, as we focus on serving those who are most in need.
“Bishop Philip leaves us with a clear way ahead and our task now is to walk that way together.”
The new Bishop of Truro is likely to be installed in spring 2025.
In the coming months there will be more details shared about the process by which a successor is appointed, including how you can join in.
Bishop Hugh added: “The next 18 months will not be an empty waiting time. We know what lies ahead because we’ve given time and energy to listening, to praying and to making plans for a fruitful and sustainable future. And we’re well on the way with turning those plans into reality, and that won’t stop now.
“The world is changing, and those changes affect us in the church – some of them in big ways. But God hasn’t changed or left us; he remains as active and engaged as he always has been.
“Cornwall has long been a holy place in which God has called people and communities. And that isn’t changing either – and I know that because all over Cornwall I see people and churches who are have heard God’s call to serve in schools, food banks, toddler groups and debt centres; people who are listening to their communities and telling them that God is real and alive and longing to know them; people who are doing church in ancient ways and new ways. People who have heard God and are walking his way together.
“Even amid change – especially in the midst of change – God remains faithful and good, and his church in Cornwall remains faithful in turn.”
Prayer
Holy and unchanging God,
creator of an ever shifting and changing world.
Bless us with a heavenly curiosity that seeks you and your ways in everything we do,
and grant us your wisdom in these next months,
that we might continue to walk your way in faith and hope and love.
Through Christ we pray.
Amen
