The Bishop of Worcester is delighted to announce the appointment of the Revd Roger Morris as the next Archdeacon of Worcester.

Roger, 39, the youngest Archdeacon in the country, is Director of Parish Development and Evangelism in the Diocese of Coventry and spent several months of last year as Acting Archdeacon.  Roger is married to Sally, a teacher, and they have two daughters aged eleven and seven. He will be taking up his appointment in the autumn in succession to the Venerable Joy Tetley who left the post earlier this year.

In addition to his responsibilities as archdeacon, Roger will be responsible for working with the Bishop and other colleagues to ensure that mission and evangelism remain at the top of the diocesan agenda. The Bishop of Worcester said, ‘Roger’s role will involve equipping local churches and individual Christians across the whole Diocese for evangelism, galvanizing resources in order that all may be enabled more effectively to spread the gospel.  I am really pleased that Roger will be joining the team in Worcester where he will have a great deal to give.’

A keen Bristol Rovers fan or ‘Gas Head’ as they are known locally, he is delighted to be moving so near to the M5 so that he can take his daughters to home games as often as work commitments allow.  He is also a great music fan and will be running the performance café at the huge Greenbelt festival in Cheltenham in August.  He is looking forward to travelling around his new patch so that he can listen to his iPod.  Roger spent happy times in Malvern as a child, where his grandparents lived; he loves Worcestershire and is looking forward to returning to a place that has meant so much to him for so many years.

Revd Morris trained for the ministry at Ridley Hall in Cambridge and was ordained deacon in 1993. He served his title in the Benefice of Northleach, a group of six rural parishes in the Diocese of Gloucester before becoming Rector of Sevenhampton, a group of nine rural churches in the Diocese of Gloucester. He moved to his present post in 2003.

Roger said, ‘I have been appointed to the best job in the Church of England.  The combination of a predominately rural area with a good mix of other types of parish - with the brief for mission and the enormous privilege of caring for God’s holy people makes this a most exciting prospect.’ 

He is leaving the Diocese of Coventry after 5 years and says he is, ‘Genuinely sorry to be leaving at such an exciting time.  We have made many firm friends in the Diocese and it will be a wrench leaving them.’

ENDS

The Diocese of Worcester is one of 44 dioceses in the Church of England. It covers an area of 671 square miles and includes parishes in the County of Worcestershire, the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, and a few parishes in northern Gloucestershire, south east Wolverhampton and Sandwell.