Chester Diocese
News Item
|
CBE for Bishop Alan
AN honorary assistant bishop in our Diocese, the Rt Revd Alan Chesters, becomes a CBE in the New Year Honours. He is due to receive the honour from the Queen or her representative at some point in the future. A former Bishop of Blackburn, Alan Chesters is honoured for services to the community in his role as chair of the North West Rural Affairs Forum. Now a member of the Chapter of Chester Cathedral, Bishop Alan grew up in West Yorkshire. He lives in retirement in Tarvin. His paternal grandfather was a farmer on the Bolesworth Estate, Burwardsley. Ordained in Southwark, south London, Bishop Alan has extensive experience of both urban and rural ministry, but it is in rural affairs that he has taken an energetic interest over the years. Both the current Labour government and the previous Conservative administration appointed him to their respective national countryside authorities and he was part of the task force set up to deal with the Foot and Mouth epidemic in 2002. He is president of the Cheshire Association of Local Councils, and he was the first chair of the House of Bishops’ rural panel. He said of his honour: “My concern all along has been to demonstrate firstly that the Church should have an active engagement in rural life and, secondly, I’ve tried to encourage Church people to be active in their wider communities. “I have worked with tremendously dedicated people over the years, and because of that we have managed to keep rural affairs as a priority in Cheshire, Lancashire and Cumbria.”
|
The Rt Revd Alan Chesters
|
