LEADING theologian Tom Wright has been chosen as the next Bishop of Durham.
He succeeds Bishop Michael who resigns at the end of April.
Dr Wright, currently Canon Theologian of Westminster Abbey, was born in 1948 and brought up in Northumberland.
He said: "The call to return to my geographical roots and serve the people of the North-East as Bishop of Durham is exciting and daunting in equal measure.
"Durham has a long tradition of scholar-bishops; all my adult life I have lived at the interface between biblical scholarship and the life of the church."
Dr Wright was educated at Sedbergh, then in Yorkshire now in Cumbria, and at Exeter College, Oxford, and studied for the ministry at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. He has written over 30 books.
His wife Maggie has worked as a teacher and as a member of the Board of Visitors of a prison in the Midlands. They have four children in their twenties.
Dr Wright lists hill walking and golf among his recreations.
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