00:00Okay, Bishop, so welcome to Starbridge. How have you found your first day seeing the area?
00:06Oh, it's been fantastic. I've met some brilliant people. I've seen some honestly amazing things going on.
00:12Community groups, churches serving their communities, and now we're here in Starbridge and looking forward to finding out what's going on here.
00:19How much have you learnt about the area prior to coming here? Because I'm imagining that you've maybe learnt a lot from talking about John Inge.
00:25Yeah, I've learnt quite a lot by talking to people, but it's different once you're in a place, isn't it?
00:30So I've got lots of information about the place, but I haven't yet really got to know it from the inside.
00:34So that's what I'm next looking forward to, is once we arrive, once I arrive here in the new year, to really getting to know what's the kind of heartbeat of the communities.
00:43I suppose that's the big thing as well, that you're the 114th Bishop of Worcester.
00:47You're following on from the 113th Bishop John Inge.
00:50Yeah.
00:51How much are you aware of what he did within the role here?
00:55Well, I know that people loved him, and I know that he loved people.
00:58He would always say, and people would say, or people do say of him, we know two things about John.
01:03He loves God, and he loves people.
01:05And I hope that I will continue to follow in those kind of footsteps, loving God and loving people, and encouraging others to do the same as he did.
01:14Okay. Are you coming in here with your own ideas about what you want to do within the role?
01:18Or are you sort of following almost the process of, if it ain't broke, don't fix it?
01:22Yeah, the Diocese of Worcester's got some really good plans. They know what they're doing.
01:26I'm not here to say, I've got new plans for you. I'm here to help them, help us, as it will be, to make those plans come to life and to support everything that's already going on.
01:35Ultimately, do you think you'll be guided by the people within the diocese?
01:37Yeah, yeah. I'm coming to join in with what's going on, and I'm sure I'll do some things differently from John, sometimes without noticing and sometimes deliberately.
01:46But I'm absolutely here to come and enable what's already going on to happen even more.
01:51And you'll be starting within the new year. How much is the excitement building right now?
01:55Yeah, I'm really excited. It feels like a bit of a wait now, but I need to go back and do the things I need to do to finish well where I am in Cornwall.
02:06And then come the new year, I'll be here, 100%.
02:08And right now, for people who don't know who you are, how would you describe yourself, first of all, as a man of the cloth, but also just as a person?
02:17Well, that's a difficult question, isn't it? I would describe myself, I love my family, I love God, I love church, I belong to communities of different kinds, inside and outside the church.
02:27So I love being with people, and I love communities that serve their neighbours, that do things practically that make life better for other people. And I love a bit of cricket.
02:37Oh, that's fair. The fact that you're going to be over the road from Worcestershire Cricket Ground.
02:42That's not a bad thing, no.
02:44But, I suppose, finally, for the people of the Diocese of Worcester, have you got one last thing you'd like to say to them before we move on today?
02:50Yeah, what I would love to invite people to do and to be is to build communities of hope.
02:58We live in a kind of anxious, quite difficult world at the moment, and I think the church is invited, called to be a community of hope.
03:04So, come and find out how you can be part of a community of hope with the church somewhere near you.
03:09Well, good luck with everything going forward.
