The Rt Rev Dr Stephen Venner who has been Bishop of Dover and Bishop in Canterbury since 1999 is to retire in November.

Dr Venner, who is 65 in the summer, has undertaken duties on behalf of Archbishop George Carey and, since 2003, Archbishop Rowan Williams.

He is the first Bishop of Dover to be an ex-officio member of the House of Bishops in recognition of the particular responsibilities the Bishop has in the diocese on behalf of the Archbishop.

Educated in Dorchester and the Universities of Birmingham, Oxford and London, Dr Venner qualified and worked as a teacher after serving his first curacy in South London.

He went on to be a vicar in Clapham, Trowbridge and Weymouth before becoming Bishop of Middleton in the Diocese of Manchester in 1994.

Dr Venner has a life-long interest in learning and had chaired the Board of Education in the Dioceses of Salisbury, Manchester and Canterbury.

He became vice-chair of the Church of England Board of Education in 2001, and acted as interim chair during the long illness of the Bishop of Portsmouth.

He became pro-chancellor of Christ Church University Canterbury in 2005, having been vice-chair of the governors since 2000.

On the wider stage, amongst other interests, Bishop Stephen is a member of Kent’s Strategic Partnership and interim chair of Kent’s Children's Trust Board.

Even further afield, he has been Bishop for the Falkland Islands since 2003.

He said: "I had no idea when I began this process how very emotionally and spiritually demanding it would be to make a decision about retirement," he said.

"Leaving the Diocese and its people whom I have come to love and admire will be even harder. But I believe that it is right to leave now, after 10 years."

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