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Stephen Lake | |
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Bishop of Salisbury | |
![]() Bishop Lake in 2022 | |
Church | Church of England |
Diocese | Diocese of Salisbury |
In office | April 2022 to present |
Predecessor | Nick Holtam |
Previous post(s) | Dean of Gloucester (2011–2022) |
Orders | |
Ordination | 1988 (deacon) 1989 (priest) |
Consecration | 25 April 2022 by Justin Welby |
Personal details | |
Born | 17 December 1963 |
Denomination | Anglican |
Stephen David Lake (born 17 December 1963) is an Anglican clergyman and author who has been Bishop of Salisbury since April 2022; he was previously Dean of Gloucester from June 2011.
After a curacy at Sherborne Abbey he was priest in charge at St Aldhelm's Church, Branksome then Rural Dean of Poole. He was a Canon Residentiary and Sub-Dean at St Albans Cathedral from 2001 until June 2011, when he became Dean of Gloucester. He was confirmed as Bishop of Salisbury in April 2022.
Lake was born on 17 December 1963 in Poole, Dorset, England. [1] After serving as a Community Service Volunteer he attended Chichester Theological College and was ordained in 1988 as deacon and 1989 as priest.
In 2011, he studied part time at King's College London, receiving a Master of Arts in Theology, Politics and Faith-Based Organisations. In 2016, he was made an Honorary Fellow for services to the City of Gloucester and the University by the University of Gloucestershire.
Lake was ordained at Salisbury Cathedral and served his curacy at Sherborne Abbey. In 1992, he became vicar of Branksome St Aldhelm's Church, becoming Assistant Rural Dean of Poole in 1996 and Rural Dean of Poole in 2000. [2]
In 2001, Lake became Sub-Dean and Canon Residentiary of St Albans Cathedral and was acting Dean between 2003 and 2004. From 2003 to 2011, he was a member of the General Synod.
In 2011, he became Dean of Gloucester; [3] he was instituted at Gloucester Cathedral on 12 June. He was a Church Commissioner, acting Chair of the Bishoprics and Cathedrals Committee, and a member of the Church of England Emerging Church Steering Group. He was also lead Dean for safeguarding.
In Gloucester, his particular interests were the delivery of Project Pilgrim, the £10m development project for the Cathedral; and his role as Chair of the Regeneration Advisory Board for the City of Gloucester, which became the City Centre Commission in 2021.
In January 2022 it was announced that he had been appointed Bishop of Salisbury, [4] to take office "after Easter" 2022. [5] His election was confirmed on 1 April 2022 (at which point he legally became Bishop of Salisbury); he was consecrated as a bishop on 25 April 2022 by Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, at Southwark Cathedral. [6]
In November 2023, he was one of 44 Church of England bishops who signed an open letter supporting the use of the Prayers of Love and Faith (i.e. blessings for same-sex couples) and called for "Guidance being issued without delay that includes the removal of all restrictions on clergy entering same-sex civil marriages, and on bishops ordaining and licensing such clergy". [7]
Lake has been a member of the Scout Association since he was a Cub Scout and is currently chair of Gloucestershire Scouts and vice president of Dorset Scouts, having been a national trustee from 2007 to 2012.[ citation needed ]
He is married to Carol and they have three children.
Jeffrey Philip Hywel John is a Church of England priest, who served as the Dean of St Albans from 2004 until 2021. He made headlines in 2003 when he was the first person to have openly been in a same-sex relationship to be nominated as a Church of England bishop. Owing to the consequent controversy he stepped down. In the years since, he has reportedly been considered for at least seven diocesan bishoprics across England, Wales and the Isle of Man.
The Diocese of Salisbury is a Church of England diocese in the south of England, within the ecclesiastical Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers the historic county of Dorset, and most of Wiltshire. The diocese is led by Stephen Lake, Bishop of Salisbury, and by the diocesan synod. The bishop's seat is at Salisbury Cathedral.
The Bishop of Sherborne is an episcopal title which takes its name from the market town of Sherborne in Dorset, England. The see of Sherborne was established in around 705 by St Aldhelm, the Abbot of Malmesbury. This see was the mother diocese of the greater part of southwestern England in Saxon times, but after the Norman Conquest was incorporated into the new Diocese of Salisbury. The title Bishop of Sherborne is now used by the Church of England for a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Salisbury.
The Bishop of Salisbury is the ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Salisbury in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers much of the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset. The see is in the City of Salisbury where the bishop's seat is in the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The current bishop is Stephen Lake.
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St Aldhelm's Church is a Grade II* listed Gothic Revival Anglican church in the Branksome area of Poole, Dorset, England. It is dedicated to Saint Aldhelm, the abbot of Malmesbury Abbey who became first Bishop of Sherborne in the early 8th century.