The Queen has approved the nomination of the Reverend Canon Graham Barham Usher to the Suffragan See of Dudley.
The Queen has approved the nomination of the Reverend Canon Graham Barham Usher, BSc, MA, Rector and Lecturer of Hexham, in the Diocese of Newcastle, to the Suffragan See of Dudley, in the Diocese of Worcester, in succession to the Right Reverend David Stuart Walker, MA, on his translation to the See of Manchester on 20 November 2013.
Reverend Canon Graham Usher
The Reverend Canon Graham Usher (aged 43), studied ecological science at the University of Edinburgh and then theology at Corpus Christi College Cambridge.
He trained for the ministry at Westcott House, Cambridge. He served his curacy at Nunthorpe-in-Cleveland, in the Diocese of York from 1996 to 1999. From 1999 to 2004 he was Vicar of North Ormesby, Middlesbrough.
Since 2004 he has been Rector and Lecturer of Hexham in the Diocese of Newcastle, serving as Area Dean of Hexham from 2006 to 2011. In 2007 he was made an Honorary Canon of Kumasi in Ghana, the place of his early childhood.
He has a particular interest in biological issues and is currently a Secretary of State appointee to the Northumberland National Park Authority and chairman of the Forestry Commission’s northeast Forestry and Woodlands Advisory Committee. In addition he is a lay member of Newcastle University’s biomedicine biobank governance and access committee.
Graham Usher is married to Rachel who is a GP and they have 2 children of school age. His interests include hill walking, drawing, writing and the company of his friends.
The Worcester diocesan website has its own announcement.
Usher stands to become the youngest of the current batch of bishops. Possibly also the first born in the 1970s?
Looks a good appointment, although I don’t know him. He is definitely the youngest bishop. Indeed there are few suffragans who were born in the 1960s, quite apart from the 1970s. The next youngest is, I believe, +Kensington who was born in 1968, and he was even younger at consecration, being only 41 or so. Those who are preferred for episcopal office young need mentoring and support. It is too easy to leave them doing what they are doing. They represent the future leaders of the Church of England.
I began to worry when policemen looked younger but when bishops begin to look like school boys then I’m seriously concerned. The next Bishop of Dudley born in the 1970s? I was ordained in the 1970s. I send greetings and prayers to the Boy Bishop of Dudley.
I’m intrigued about what a “Lecturer of Hexham” lectures about!
A lecturer is a historic and almost defunct title for an assistant priest who drew a stipend but wasn’t Incumbent. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lecturer#Ecclesiastical_usage
Boston parish church ( The Stump ) had a Lecturer (senior curate) whose role was to preach three Protestant sermons each year.