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I greatly look forward to beginning ministry as the next Bishop of Cyprus and the Gulf. Bishop Clive is spoken of with deep respect around the Anglican Communion, and I know I am stepping into a rich inheritance.

I grew up in Hampshire. At Oxford I read Oriental Studies before a second degree in Theology - but Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac rather than Arabic. Cuddesdon Theological College led to ordination in Southwark by the formidable Bishop Mervyn Stockwood and a curacy in a Surrey village. There Julia and I married. We now have three grownup children, and one grandson.

I have been a higher-education chaplain in inner South London, vicar of the suburban parish of Welling in the Borough of Bexley, leader of the main team ministry in Worcester, and, since 1999, bishop of Middleton. I lead on education in the diocese of Manchester and am also Warden of Readers and Lay Eucharistic Assistants. Nationally I chair the Higher Education Panel of the Board of Education, as well as being part of the body that relates bishops and dioceses to Anglican religious communities of monks and nuns. I am Bishop Visitor of the Sisters of the Love of God at Fairacres.

A slice of my time is devoted to interfaith cooperation, and I chair the Oldham Interfaith Forum, a practical response by Christians, Muslims, and Hindus in particular to the serious civil disturbances that followed far-right political activity in 2001. I also take part in Jewish-Christian dialogue in Manchester, where of course the Jewish population is long-standing and considerable.

Though I have travelled quite a lot in other parts of the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East I do not know the Gulf at first hand. I ask people there to be patient with me as I meet them and begin to absorb the situations they live and work in. Julia too looks forward to our getting to know people and places. (She's lived in the heat more than I have, for instance in Kuwait and Libya.) Together, whatever our different and highly varied circumstances, let's carry on delighting in our common life in Christ.

With prayers and all blessings.

Michael

Bishop Michael Lewis will be installed in the Cathedral in Nicosia
on Saturday 24th November.
A week later he will be in the Gulf in Bahrain
to be installed in the Cathedral there.

Information on the Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf