THE new Bishop of Knaresborough was named yesterday at a ceremony timed to coincide with an announcement made at 10 Downing Street.

Canon James Bell, the director of mission in the Ripon and Leeds diocese, takes over from the Right Reverend Frank Weston, who died suddenly earlier this year shortly before he was due to retire.

A formal consecration will be held at York Minster on March 2 next year, followed by a service of installation and welcome at Ripon Cathedral on Sunday, March 14.

Mr Bell, 53, said: "I am thrilled to be asked to exercise the ministry of a bishop in the diocese which I know and love and with clergy and colleagues whom I value and respect highly."

"Being called to be a bishop in today's Church feels both very exciting and hugely challenging. It is a particular pleasure and privilege to be succeeding Frank Weston as Bishop of Knaresborough."

Mr Bell, a former chaplain of Brasenose College, Oxford, a rector in Northolt and an area dean of Ealing, will be working closely with the Bishop of Ripon, John Packer and the diocese's rural officer, Canon Leslie Morley.

He said: "My priorities will be to communicate something of the passion of God for his creation, to encourage confidence both through effective Christian nurture and renewed prayer, and to enable connections to be made between faith and life, worship and work, church and community."