THE new Bishop of Jarrow will take office on Thursday.

The Venerable Mark Watts Bryant, currently Archdeacon of Coventry, will be consecrated by the Archbishop of York, the Most Reverend Dr John Sentamu, in a service in York Minster.

The new bishop was born in Wiltshire into a clergy household, and was a choirboy at Guildford Cathedral.

After he left school, he went on to study at Durham University, then trained for ordination at a theological college near Oxford.

He served as curate at Addlestone, in Surrey, then moved to Trowbridge, Wiltshire, where he started as chaplain at the local further education college, before he became vicar of the parish.

In 1988, he moved to Coventry to become director of ordinands and training and was appointed team rector of a Coventry parish, becoming archdeacon in 2001.

The new bishop is married to Elisabeth, a nurse lecturer and practitioner, and has three grown-up children.

To prepare for the 11am service, the minster will be closed to the public all morning and will reopen to visitors at about 3pm.

Those attending the 7.30am and 7.45am services should enter via the Chapter House Yard.