Cuthbert's cross reminds history-making Helen of home, as she is enthroned first woman bishop

The Reverend Dr Helen-Ann Hartley will be installed as Bishop of Waikato, in New Zealand, on Saturday – the same day as Paul Butler is enthroned as the new Bishop of Durham at Durham Cathedral.

And the 40-year-old, who served at Durham Cathedral as a child, will have with her a Cuthbert Durham Pectoral Cross.

It will be taken to her by her parents Jim and Pat Francis, who still live in Bowburn, County Durham.

Her father, a retired clergyman and honorary canon of Durham Cathedral, said: “The Cuthbert’s Cross is a bishop’s badge of office and a sign of her spiritual authority in her diocese.

“We’re taking it as a gift, a sign of our thankfulness at how the people in her new diocese have recognised her talents.

“Growing up in Sunderland and Durham, the Diocese of Durham was Helen-Ann’s formation. She’s delighted that she will have a Durham Cuthbert cross.

“When she found out that her enthronement was on the same day that the new Bishop of Durham will be enthroned, she was delighted.”

Bishop Hartley was born in Edinburgh and moved with her family to Sunderland in 1975, when her father began working at Sunderland Polytechnic.

She attended school in Sunderland, studied at St Andrew’s University in Scotland and was ordained in 2005 in the Oxford Diocese, becoming the fourth generation of her family to enter the priesthood.

With her church organist husband Myles, she left for New Zealand in 2010.

Her mother, a Durham Cathedral steward, said: “It’s all linking in beautifully, transferring memories of her life here, where she got so much joy from serving, to her new life in Waikato.

“It’s a beautiful coincidence that she will be enthroned on the same day as Bishop Paul is enthroned as Bishop of Durham. She is delighted.”

Bishop Hartley succeeds Archbishop David Moxon, who is now the Anglican Communion’s ambassador to Rome.