First Bishop of Berwick for 444 years inaugurated
- Published
Hundreds attended the service which marked Bishop Tanner's formal introduction to the diocese.
A new Bishop of Berwick has been inaugurated for the first time in 444 years.
The Right Reverend Mark Tanner, until recently the Warden of Cranmer Hall in Durham, has been inaugurated at St Nicholas' Cathedral in Newcastle.
Hundreds attended the service which marked Bishop Tanner's formal introduction to the diocese.
The title has been out of use for 444 years since the death in 1572 of the Right Reverend Thomas Sparke.
The Queen approved the nomination of the Bishop Tanner to the Suffragan See of Berwick in September, external.
The 45-year-old married father of two said: "To be a Bishop in the North East is just fantastic, if I have to be a Bishop anywhere I can think of nowhere I'd prefer to be than right up here in the North East."
The Suffragan Bishop of Berwick supports and extends the ministry of the Bishop of Newcastle and will work with her across the whole Diocese of Newcastle.
The Dean of Newcastle, the Very Reverend Christopher Dalliston, said it marked a "new chapter in the long story of the Christian faith in the North East".