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Bristol’s first female bishop welcomed into city
The first female bishop of Bristol in almost 500 years arrived into the city by boat on Saturday afternoon to a musical accompaniment from the Easton Salvation Army band.
The enthronement of Viv Faull as the 56th bishop of Bristol was a hugely symbolic affair, with some elements unchanged for centuries and others which had a decidedly modern touch.
Walking from the Cascade Steps accompanied by a group of schoolchildren, Bishop Viv waited in the cathedral gatehouse for a few minutes before knocking with her staff three times on the west door of the cathedral to be allowed into the building.
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Among the congregation was John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, Viv’s previous boss when she was dean of York; the Archdeacon of Canterbury; the Bishop of Mbale in Uganda; the Bishop of Clifton; and local civic dignitaries including Bristol’s lord mayor, high sheriff and lord-lieutenant.
Alongside a gospel choir, hymns included Abbot’s Leigh by John Newton, a slave trader who became an abolitionist; and Blaenwern by Jill Jenkins, which had been written for the service at St Paul’s Cathedral to mark the tenth anniversary of the ordination of women to the priesthood.
Writing her introduction in the order of service, 63-year-old Bishop Viv said: “For more than 30 years, I have worked with colleagues who supported God’s calling of women to the diaconate, presbyterate and episcopate, and those who did not.
“Changes in culture make many in the church feel they are on the margins, and that does give us an opportunity to pioneer new ways. This new bishop comes to learn with you and from God what these ways mean in Bristol.”
Bishop Viv preparing to give her sermon
The purpose of the enthronement service was to welcome Bishop Viv into the diocese of Bristol with symbolic elements including Viv laying her right hand on a Bible from 1540 (two years before Paul Bush became the first bishop of Bristol), sprinkling water over the congregation, her forehead being anointed with oil and being ceremoniously installed in her cathedra – the bishop’s seat in the cathedral.
At the start of her sermon, she returned a cricket ball to the winning captain of the Bristol diocese cricket team who this summer won the national trophy for the first time, before talking of subjects including how in Luke’s Gospel he speaks of 5,000 men rather than 5,000 people, and also touching on modern themes such as climate change and Brexit.
“I have already discovered the reservoir of hopefulness that in this diocese,” she said from the pulpit of the cathedral.
She added: “Those that are marginalised know that what is not counted does not count.”
The service finished with Bishop Viv, now wearing a white bishop’s hat known as a mitre, symbolically address the people of Bristol from the steps of the cathedral gatehouse after the two City Trumpeters played a fanfare.
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