MORE than 400 people packed into Brecon Cathedral on Saturday to celebrate the consecration of the new Bishop of Monmouth.
Bishop Cherry Vann was consecrated as the 11th Bishop of Monmouth following the confirmation of her election earlier this month.
She was elected Bishop by the Electoral College of the Church in Wales in September. Prior to that she was Archdeacon of Rochdale in the Diocese of Manchester for 11 years.
Bishop Cherry was led into the Cathedral by a number of processions which included those of the bishops, other clergy, diocesan registrars and chancellors.
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During the service, she was consecrated by the Archbishop of Wales John Davies. She was then anointed with holy oil and presented with the symbols of her office: a bishop’s episcopal ring, a pectoral cross and mitre, as well as a Bible and a pastoral staff.
Paying tribute to Bishop Cherry’s ministry, Bishop Cherry’s friend Revd Robert Lawrence said: “What has characterised Cherry’s ministry has been to work positively with those who see things differently, for example her willingness to work with those who have been against the ordination of women, and on the Pastoral Advisory Group on how the Church of England attends to human sexuality.
“Cherry's formation and experience, as well as her insight and spiritual resources, equip her to lead on mission and to be an ambassador of Christ, which means turning up and getting involved in the hard stuff.”
(Bishop Cherry Vann was consecrated at Brecon Cathedral in a service led by the Archbishop of Wales. Picture: Church in Wales.)
He then called on the church to heal divisions, saying: “A bishop is a point of unity, except that in the church today we seem to find disunity when the bishop is a woman in a church where not everyone accepts the leadership of women, or when the bishop is in a same sex civil partnership in a church where not everyone accepts gay relationships, and where the bishop is English in a Welsh diocese.
“More importantly we live in a nation whose divisions have been revealed by Brexit, where inequality of opportunity grows, and where the consequences of relentless consumption upon the climate and the natural resources of the planet affect the poorest communities hardest.
“The church will become part of the solution when it is present, when it engages with the toughest parts, and in so doing allows itself to be transformed, becoming one with those amongst whom it works.”
Bishop Cherry will be now be enthroned at Newport Cathedral on February 1 at 11am.
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