Bishop Martin's retirment

After 17 years as Bishop of this diocese, Martin Wharton retires at the end of this month. Following his farewell service in Newcastle Cathedral he  gave the City of Newcastle a blessing from Cathedral Square. (Photos from the service.)

Tributes have been given in a number of places, amongst them:

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, in General Synod 

The Journal

from the Chronicle

The Chronicle 

National Wind Watch In 2013 he told The Journal that it was his Christian duty to speak out against turbines, which he felt were turning the rural North East into a “disfigured industrial landscape”. This led to his largest postbag ever from people on both sides of the debate.

Brief Biography (the Journal)

Bishop Martin was born in 1944 in Ulverston in what was then Lancashire, and after attending the local grammar school went to Van Mildert College, Durham, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics, politics and sociology in 1969. 

He then went to Linacre College, Oxford, where he received a bachelor’s degree in theology and a Master of Arts in 1971. A year later he became a curate in Birmingham, before moving to a church in Croydon. Between 1977 and 1983 he was Director of Pastoral Studies at Ripon College Cuddesdon, Oxford, and between 1983 and 1992 he was the Director of Ministry and Training in the Diocese of Bradford and a residentiary canon of Bradford Cathedral. 

In 1992, he became area Bishop of Kingston-upon-Thames until he was appointed the 11th Bishop of Newcastle in 1997.

Bishop Martin in the House of Lords (BBC)

New Bishop
Now the search is beginning for a new bishop - though it may well be over a year before anyone  is appointed. Newcastle is the third Diocese (after Gloucester and Oxford) which will be able to choose a woman diocesan bishop.

The public is being consulted on what qualities they would look for in a bishop.

However the process itself is conducted in conditions of utmost secrecy (Wikipedia).  We wait and pray.