Bishops
The Bishop of Jarrow
The Rt Rev Mark Bryant
Bishop's House
25 Ivy Lane, Low Fell, Gateshead NE9 6QD
Tel: (0191) 491 0917 Fax: (0191) 491 5116
Email: Bishop.of.Jarrow@durham.anglican.org
Mark Bryant is no stranger to the North East, having studied at St John's College in Durham. "I have many memories of icy winds blowing around the Peninsular," Mark remembers, "warm hospitality and mountains of food in South Hetton where some of us ran a youth club, and feeling somewhat terrified hearing the Bible Reading: 'I send you out as sheep among wolves' at the start of the first mission I was ever involved in, at St Gabriel's Sunderland." He also met his future wife, Elisabeth, in Durham. She was studying Botany with the as yet unknown David Bellamy and now works as a Nurse Lecturer/Practitioner.
After university Mark trained for ordination at Cuddesdon Theological College, Oxford, with a short spell with the World Council of Churches in Geneva. After a curacy in Addlestone in Surrey I moved to work with a colleague in a church in Trowbridge Wilshire. "As I arrived the walls of the church were literally being knocked down in order to be able to find room for the growing congregation," he said. Initially he worked as chaplain to the local FE College before becoming vicar of the parish. "We had a lot of fun in the nine years there and it began my interest in finding ways of talking about Christian Faith without using 'churchy' language and using Soap Operas as a way of talking with people about the things that really mattered to them."
In 1988 he moved to Coventry to be Director of Ordinands and Director of Training - an opportunity to develop his interest in helping people discover how they might best serve God in both church and world. "I remember often suggesting to people that God was more likely to call them to serve in the world than in the church as there was more of it!" he explained. Eight years later he was invited to become Team Rector of a parish of 33,000 in north east Coventry; a very mixed community including some of the most socially disadvantaged parts of the city. "The church for which I had responsibility attracted many local people for baptisms, weddings and funerals," Mark said,. "We devoted a lot of time and energy trying to discover how we could welcome people in the best possible way for the important moments in their lives and at the same time introduce them to the Christian Faith. Here I learned yet more about the value of working in a wonderfully supportive and creative team where working together was clearly so much easier – and more fun - than working in isolation." During that time he was also Chair of Governors of the local CofE Secondary School.
Prior to becoming Bishop of Jarrow, Mark spent six years as Archdeacon of Coventry. "For part of that time I have also been Chair of Social Responsibility," he said, "and there has been a particular emphasis on supporting disadvantaged communities in their work of making a real difference to the lives of the people they seek to serve. I believe there is a growing realisation that in many of our communities we are making a much greater difference than we realise in quite simple ways; by providing a lunch club or a place for parents to meet. In Coventry – as in Durham – the Church, like almost every other major organisation, has had to face many major changes. We have less stipendiary clergy on the ground and there is a growing realisation that what we are doing is not, on its own, enough. I believe that part of my role has been to spend time sitting alongside clergy and laity in church meetings and elsewhere as together we have tried to find the right way forward and learn that despite what sometimes seems very difficult situations the Church can grow wonderfully and its influence increase. I have also found myself as Vice-Chair of the Board of a local NHS Acute Trust, learning at first hand something of the pressures and opportunities of life in the NHS today."
Mark was consecrated Bishop of Jarrow in York Minister in 2007.
Mark and Elisabeth have three grown up children 'which makes it much easier to spend holidays walking in out of the way places' he says. "My children have introduced me to the world of art and photography," he added, "and I unwind by listening to music and watching popular television."
"We met in Durham over thirty years ago. We have changed a good deal in those thirty years and know that the North East has as well and we are both looking forward very much to renewing our acquaintance with this part of the country."
For recent Sermons and Talks from Bishop Mark click here
Back to top