Archbishop bids farewell to assume life of parish priest

A service was held for the outgoing Archbishop of York, Dr David Hope, at the city's minster on Saturday.

He told 3,000 worshippers, clerics and local dignitaries that his new role as a parish priest would be no less demanding.

Dr Hope said: "Ever since my appointment to St Margaret's Ilkley was announced, people have been saying to me 'I suppose you're winding down now, Archbishop?' To which my response has been 'certainly not', quite the opposite.

"I am winding up for the parish. I've already received urgent e-mails about drains.

"I have it in mind that at the interview meeting with the church wardens, one of them said to me something to the effect that 'well, you needn't think that you're coming here for an easy life.' So I think I have an inkling as to what I'm in for."

He will be taking a pay cut of £40,000 a year to go back to being a priest and will swap the splendour of the nine-acre Bishopthorpe Palace on the banks of the River Ouse for St Margaret's humble rectory.

He will be preaching to a congregation of about 150 worshippers at his new parish, which is Anglo-Catholic in tradition.

Dr Hope ended his sermon by expressing his thanks to the members of the 600 churches which make up the diocese of York.

Towards the end of the service, he was presented with a cheque for £6,000 on behalf of the churches before handing his pastoral staff to the Bishop of Hull, the Right Reverend Richard Firth, who will take responsibility for the diocese until a new archbishop is appointed.

Members of the congregation and clerics paid tribute to Dr Hope, who they said would be difficult to replace.

The Reverend Chris Coullwick, chaplain for the city's council and football club, said: "He's very popular, both with those who work in the church and those who come to worship. That's quite unusual.

''I think he's very much a man of the people, who works very closely with local communities."

Dr Hope will begin working in Ilkley, in West Yorkshire, in March.