Week of Welcome for Bishop David
13 November 2006

Thousands of church-goers along with civic dignitaries, business leaders, broadcasters and journalists will be meeting the ninth Bishop of Birmingham in a special week of welcome beginning with a Service of Inauguration on November 17th.

The official service to mark the beginning of Bishop David Urquhart’s ministry in the Diocese of Birmingham will be held in Birmingham Cathedral at 11am on November 17th. Before the service the Bishop will walk through the city centre accompanied by a piper.

Some 800 people will attend the service and 150 more will watch in on a big screen in a near-by pub, the Old Joint Stock in Temple Row. The pub is already the venue for a monthly discussion on Christianity called Pints of View.

The following day Bishop David will address around 800 young people meeting for worship, teaching and music at St Martin in the Bullring Church also in Birmingham City Centre. The young people will have a chance to ask questions as the Bishop joins in the bi-monthly Reunited service.

From November 20th to November 24th four special services of welcome will be held in the Cathedral on the Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday evenings.  Churchgoers from across the diocese are being invited to come and meet the Bishop. Singing will be led by younger members of the church –aged 9 to sixteen – and the services will be followed by refreshments.

Commenting on the plans for the week of welcome, Bishop David, said: “I am thrilled that nearly 4,000 people from around the Diocese will be coming in to the City Centre as part of this wonderful week of welcome.

”I am quickly learning that Birmingham is a most hospitable and welcoming place and I already feel very settled in the West Midlands.

“We hope to have highlights of the inauguration service available to download from our website so, although our Cathedral cannot seat thousands of people in one service, we hope the inauguration will be watched and enjoyed by many people here, in our companion dioceses of Malawi and by anyone with a connection with the Diocese of Birmingham, wherever they may be living.”

Bishop David Urquhart comes to Birmingham from Birkenhead where he was a suffragan (assistant) bishop in the Diocese of Chester. The Anglican Bishop of Birmingham is responsible overall for a network of 180 churches, more than 50 schools and community projects, mission initiatives, youthwork  and Sunday Schools.

The Diocese of Birmingham has a population of  1,386,997 people and covers 294 square miles. As well as the city of Birmingham it includes parts of the Black Country, Worcestershire, Warwickshire and all of Solihull and Sutton Coldfield.

Notes to Editors

For more information please call Jessica Foster, Bishop’s Director of Communications on 07973 173 195.

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