‘That’s it folks ”“ until the next Bishop.’
Those were the parting words from the retiring Bishop of Portsmouth as he said goodbye to a 300-strong congregation of worshippers.
The Rt Rev Dr Kenneth Stevenson’s final service at Portsmouth Anglican Cathedral was tinged with sadness, yet full of jubilant song and celebration.
The 59-year-old has called time after 14 years in the job following a four-year battle with leukaemia, which has seen him undergo two bone marrow transplants.
It’s always great to see a bishop end a long ministry with honor, much loved and admired. I don’t know the man, but I’ve long admired +Kenneth Stevenson’s liturgical writings. In particular, his big book on the controversial topic of the proper sense in which the Eucharist is a sacrifice, and his history of the evolution of the wedding service, are masterful.
If he was truly as good a chief pastor as he was a liturgical scholar, then the CoE was richly blessed.
David Handy+