Downing Street has announced this morning that Jonathan Baker, currently Bishop of Ebbsfleet, has been appointed to succeed John Broadhurst in the Bishopric of Fulham. He will be moving to St Dunstan in the West Church in Fleet Street which will be the base for his ministry.
Bishop Jonathan grew up in Pinner in Middlesex, and as a boy attended the parish church of St Edmund the King, Northwood Hills, in the Willesden Episcopal Area of the Diocese of London. He was ordained deacon in 1993 and priest in 1994 in the Diocese of Oxford, and served in parish ministry in that diocese from 1993 – 2002, including seven years as parish priest of the Holy Trinity, Reading and St Mark’s, Reading. In 2003 he was appointed Principal of Pusey House in Oxford. Pusey House offers a pastoral ministry to students in the University of Oxford together with research and formational resources rooted in the revival of catholic teaching and practice within the Church of England known as the ‘tractarian’ or Oxford Movement.
I believe Bishop Jonathan will be a great asset to the London Team. He has already indicated his willingness to play the fullest possible part in the life of the whole Diocese as well as caring for the Fulham Parishes in London, Southwark and Rochester.
I am extremely grateful to the Bishop of Edmonton for carrying the heat and burden of the day, not only in the Edmonton Area where he had been serving for some time without archidiaconal support, but in the Fulham constituency in our region.
The formal date for a transfer of responsibilities will be Ash Wednesday, 13th February next year, and I hope very soon to be able to let you know about the programme of welcome and induction.
