Canon Martin Seeley, who will become Suffolk’s most senior Church of England clergyman in June, was today ordained as a Bishop during a moving service at Westminster Abbey attended by a congregation of more than 1,600 people.
The service, attended by many people from across Suffolk who travelled to London, comes after Canon Seeley was chosen to be the eleventh Bishop of the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich.
He is moving from his role as Principal at one of the Church of England’s leading theological colleges, Westcott House in Cambridge, and on June 2 Bishop Martin will pay Homage to Her Majesty The Queen during a private audience at Buckingham Palace.
The formal start to his public ministry as Suffolk’s Bishop will begin after his Enthronement at St Edmundsbury Cathedral in Bury St Edmunds, on Saturday June 20 at 3pm.
Bishop Martin, 60, is married to Jutta Brueck, a priest in Cambridge, and has two children, Anna, 14, and Luke, 12.
Bishop Martin said: “I am thrilled to be coming to a Diocese where the Church is so engaged with the life of the whole community. A Diocese where churches open as winter night shelters, run food banks for those in need, and in countless other ways are agents of Christ’s love.
“This is a Diocese where people are committed to working together for the good of all. The Christian gospel is about reconciliation and new life. Our working together for the good of everyone is an expression of that.”
The Very Revd Dr Frances Ward, Dean of St Edmundsbury Cathedral in Bury St Edmunds, said: “Canon Martin Seeley was made a bishop by the Archbishop of Canterbury. A bishop is ordained to give the Church necessary leadership and oversight in a historic tradition that goes all the way back to the first apostles.
“It’s an important day for Martin and his family. It’s an important day for the Church in Suffolk too, as we witness the approach of Martin’s ministry amongst us as our Bishop. It will, with God’s grace, be a long and fruitful ministry.”
Bishop Martin served from 1980 to 1990 in the US, first as curate at the Church of the Epiphany in New York City and as assistant director of Trinity Institute at Trinity Wall Street; and then as Director of the Thompson Center, an ecumenical continuing education centre, in St Louis.
Pictured above is Bishop Martin Seeley with the Archbishop of Canterbury the Most Rev Justin Welby at Westminster Abbey. Picture by Andrew Dunsmore / Westminster Abbey.
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