The Diocese of Chester has published the following Press Release which announces that the  Bishop of Chester, the Rt Revd Dr Peter Forster, will be retiring from his role on Monday 30 September 2019. Bishop Peter has also issued an Ad Clerum.

Bishop Peter announces his retirement

The Bishop of Chester, the Rt Revd Dr Peter Forster, has announced that he will be retiring from his role on Monday 30 September 2019, after more than 22 years in the post.

In a letter to clergy, published on the diocesan website today, he says: “I will be retiring as Bishop on 30 September… It has been a huge privilege to serve in this Diocese, and I am looking forward to my final months in post.

“At 69, I was beginning to feel ready to retire – with Elisabeth in strong agreement! We will move to our house in Scotland, which we have lovingly built over the past decade or so, and which is ready and waiting for us.”

Bishop Peter will bid farewell to the clergy of the Diocese at a conference in June and a farewell service at Chester Cathedral is planned for Saturday 20 July – about which more information will be made available soon.

The Bishop of Birkenhead, the Rt Revd Keith Sinclair, will become Acting Bishop from 1 October 2019.

The process for appointing Bishop Peter’s successor will begin in due course.

Page last updated: 24th Apr 2019 2:41 PM

Comment

In our post Safeguarding – Chester Diocese on 29 March 2019, we reported that the Archbishop of York had issued a statement on the safeguarding arrangements in Chester Diocese; Bishop Peter also released a statement  on the diocesan web site stating that the Bishop of Birkenhead, Keith Sinclair, had been asked to lead on all safeguarding arrangements in the Diocese of Chester and he had formally delegated this responsibility to him with immediate effect. This decision was in response to recent comment into his handling of the Gordon Dickenson case in 2009.

The IICSA second seminar on mandatory reporting will take place on 29 and 30 April 2019.