Bristol: double ordination at Clifton Cathedral

Source: Diocese of Clifton

Next Saturday, the Right Reverend Declan Lang, Bishop of Clifton, will ordain Bede Rowe and Alexander Redman to the priesthood in Clifton Cathedral. Family, friends and people from a number of parishes from around the Clifton Diocese will gather to take part in the celebration.

Bishop Declan said: "I am looking forward to celebrating the Ordinations and pray that the two priests will have fruitful years of ministry within our diocese".

Alexander Redman, 33, is a former Personal Assistant to the Right Honourable John Gummer MP, who was Secretary of State for the Environment. Alexander took up this position at the House of Commons after studying Classics at Durham University. He has also spent four years in Ealing Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in London before leaving monastic life to train for the diocesan priesthood at the English College in Rome. After completing his studies in Rome he returned to the Clifton Diocese in July 2002 and worked at St Augustine of Canterbury, Downend, Bristol, where in July 2003 he was ordained deacon. Since the summer of 2003 Alexander has been working at Clifton Cathedral.

Bede Rowe was born in County Durham and is also 33. Bede studied theology at Oriel College, Oxford. Following his graduation in 1992, he went to live in a L'Arche Community in South London with people with learning disabilities. After joining Ealing Abbey in 1997 he studied philosophy at Allen Hall in London. He also began a masters degree in the Old Testament which he gained with a thesis on the subject of the Ark of the Covenant. Having been accepted as a student for the Priesthood by the Clifton Diocese he studied at Oscott College in Birmingham. Ordained deacon in 2003, he is currently working in the St Nicholas of Tolentino Parish in Easton, Bristol with Father Richard McKay.

Everyone is welcome to the Ordination Mass which begins at 11am in Clifton Cathedral on Pembroke Road. Clifton Diocese will be celebrating another ordination later this year when Louis Beasley-Suffolk is ordained to the priesthood on Saturday 26 June at St Patrick's, Redfield, Bristol. The Mass begins at 3pm.