The new Bishop of Rochester was announced this morning by Downing Street.

He is the Rt Rev Jonathan Gibbs, currently the Bishop of Huddersfield and holds a national role in the Church of England as Lead Bishop for Safeguarding.

Bishop Jonathan will lead the Diocese of Rochester, which serves a population of around 1.3 million people and covers 215 parishes across Medway, north and west Kent, and the London Boroughs of Bromley and Bexley.

He is married to his wife Toni, and they have three grown-up children. His interests include walking, usually accompanied by their Cocker Spaniel, and rummaging in second-hand bookshops.

He is a fluent French speaker with a love of France, and especially its wines. He also speaks German and Swiss-German.

He and his wife, who originally met when working in Paris, enjoy entertaining and making new friends. Jonathan is also a member of the Campaign to Protect Rural England and the Campaign for Real Ale, committed to supporting village and community life..

Responding to his appointment, Bishop Jonathan said:“I am delighted to have been announced as the new Bishop of Rochester. My wife Toni and I are so excited about the prospect of moving to this wonderful diocese.

“For us, Rochester will be a new place to discover and we’re so looking forward to getting to know the people of our churches and our communities, and to working together with them as we encourage God’s kingdom to grow in this wonderfully varied and rich place.”

“We are very conscious of the diversity of the communities that we serve, from urban and suburban to profoundly rural, and I am looking forward to the opportunity of exploring all these different places and to sharing in the journey with the people here of growing God’s Church, of serving the communities, and of proclaiming the good news of Christ to the people whom we seek to love and to serve in Jesus’ name.”

He succeeds the Rt Rev James Langstaff who retired in July last year.

Over the rest of the day, Bishop Jonathan will meet with some of the people and parishes of the diocese to learn more about the part churches and Christians are playing in transforming their communities.

In Sidcup, he is due to spend some time with members of the local Ukrainian community with whom the church of St John’s – along with the wider community - has been standing alongside with compassion, prayer, and practical assistance. As part of the church’s developing offer of support and welcome,

English for Ukrainian classes have started to run out of the church to help both existing and future members of the community.

In Chatham, Bishop Jonathan will help welcome new members of the ministry team to St John’s Church.Having reopened in April 2021 after more that 20 years of closure, St John’s in Chatham is part of an ambitious commitment to mission, ministry, and partnerships in the town.

Projects there include Genesis Football, which uses sport to engage with isolated and vulnerable adults, and Medway Oaks, a Sunday afternoon congregation and drop-in for the homeless and marginalised, run in partnership with the Christian organisation, Church Army.

At the Medway Campus, lay chaplain Lynne Martin, accompanied by some of the students, will take Bishop Jonathan on a tour of the site which is home to three universities: Canterbury Christ Church University, Greenwich University, and University of Kent.

The day will end at Rochester Cathedral where Bishop Jonathan will join the congregation for Evensong.

Bishop Jonathan’s installation as Bishop of Rochester is expected to take place sometime in September. More details will be made available in due course.

Jonathan Gibbs grew up in Cheshire and then studied at Jesus College, Oxford for his MA in Philosophy and Politics and Jesus College, Cambridge for a PhD on the Theology of Work.

He trained for ordained ministry at Ridley Hall, Cambridge. He served his curacy in the Diocese of Chester at Stalybridge, Holy Trinity and Christ Church from 1989 -92. He was Chaplain at Basle with Freiburg-im-Breisgau, in the Diocese of Europe from 1992 – 98 and was Rector of Heswall in the Diocese of Chester from 1998 until 2014.

Jonathan was consecrated as Bishop of Huddersfield in York Minster on October 17 2014.

He currently holds the national church portfolio of Lead Bishop for Safeguarding and will continue in that role until the end of March 2023, completing his three-year term.

He was formerly a member of the Clergy Discipline Commission and is a member of the General Synod and of the Meissen Commission, linking the Church of England with the Evangelical Church in Germany.