Downing Street has announced that His Majesty the King has approved the appointment of Hugh Nelson as the 114th Bishop of Worcester.
Bishop Hugh is currently the Bishop of St Germans in the Diocese of Truro, a position he has held since 2020, serving as the Acting Bishop of Truro from Sept 2023 until May this year. He is also Bishop to the Armed Forces, providing spiritual and pastoral leadership to Anglican Chaplains serving in the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force, a role which he will continue to hold as Bishop of Worcester.
Ordained in 2008, Hugh served his curacy in six rural parishes in East Kent before serving for eight years as the parish priest of Goudhurst with Kilndown, two village churches in the Diocese of Canterbury. Before ordination, Hugh spent 13 years living and leading the community of L’Arche London, part of an international network of ecumenical Christian communities where people with and without learning disabilities share life together.
Bishop Hugh said:
Welcoming Bishop Hugh to the Diocese
“It is an enormous privilege to be appointed as the next Bishop of Worcester. I am so looking forward to joining you in Worcestershire and Dudley on your journey as Kingdom People; getting to know the different communities across the Diocese and finding out what God is up to in its villages, towns and cities.
“The Diocese of Worcester is full of so much that is good and holy, with plans to double the number of young disciples, to create 100 new worshipping communities, to renew churches right across the area and to underpin all this by resourcing clergy and lay leaders. And all of that building on the faithful, generous service of people in churches of every size, tradition and place from Dudley to Bredon, and from Malvern to Redditch.”
Bishop Hugh will be announced as the next Bishop of Worcester by young people at a ‘Lightbox’ event at St Helen’s Church in Worcester. During the announcement day, he will meet adults and young people at the Wildgoose Rural Training care farm, where he will be welcomed by clergy and representatives of the Chaplaincy for Agriculture and Rural Life. Bishop Hugh will then go on to meet clergy and renewal church leaders at St Thomas in Stourbridge in the Greater Dudley Deanery; meet with the Diocesan Director of Safeguarding and have tea and cake with other diocesan and cathedral staff before finishing the day at Evensong in the Cathedral.
Bishop Hugh continued:
“In a changing world, our first call is to be faithful; to be confident that God has given us everything we need to be the Church that he is calling us to be. From that foundation we’re invited to be constantly curious about what is God doing, and to respond boldly, in both traditional and new ways. And it will be a key part of my role to lead us in doing all of that together here in Worcester, with the unity that Jesus prayed for.”
Bishop Hugh is married to Lizzie, who is UK Director of Search for Common Ground, an international NGO which works to transform conflicts and build peace. Hugh and Lizzie have four children in their teens and 20s. Hugh loves hanging out with his family, gardening and playing and watching football, rugby and cricket. He is delighted that he will be living opposite New Road Cricket Ground!