A new bishop has been formally welcomed and installed in his new diocese.

The Rt Rev Jonathan Gibbs is the 108th Bishop of Rochester and was awarded a special service on Saturday as he starts to lead the Church of England Diocese of Rochester.

It is a seat 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.

It is Bishop Jonathan's latest role having joined the church since the start of university.

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

He said: "There are lots of important parts to the ceremony but I think the first is when I stand outside the doors and the doors are shut, and I bang in the hope they are going to let me in.

"But on the other side of that door, I know there are going to be some young people from one of our schools who are going to say, 'why are you here?', 'who are you?', 'what have you come to do?'

"That sense of being welcomed, especially by those young people on behalf of the congregation, and walking in to see all those people, will be a very moving moment."

He was announced as the new bishop in March following the retirement of Bishop James Langstaff in October 2020.

Speaking of his new patch, Bishop Jonathan added: “I am very conscious of the diversity of the communities that we serve, from urban and suburban to profoundly rural.

"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.”

Bishop Jonathan grew up in Cheshire and studied at Jesus College, Oxford for his Master's degree in Philosophy and Politics.

He then went on to acquire a PhD on the Theology of Work this time studying at Jesus College, Cambridge before being trained for ordained ministry at Ridley Hall, Cambridge.

At the start of his career in the clergy, he served his curacy in the Diocese of Chester at Stalybridge, Holy Trinity and Christ Church from 1989 to 1992.

Continuing form there he took on the role of chaplain at Basel with Freiburg-im-Breisgau, in the Diocese of Europe from 1992 to 1998.

Jonathan was then Rector of Heswall in the Diocese of Chester from 1998 until 2014 when he was consecrated as Bishop of Huddersfield in York Minster in October that year.

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

He has three children with his wife Toni, whom he originally met when working in Paris, and they enjoy entertaining and making new friends.

Jonathan is a fluent French speaker but is well versed in German and the Swiss-German dialect.

He also enjoys walking, usually accompanied by their Cocker Spaniel, and rummaging in second-hand bookshops.

Jonathan is also a member of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) and the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) committed to supporting village and community life.