THE Prime Minister led the tributes this week to the Bishop of Durham, who announced his retirement on Radio 4's Test Match Special.

The Right Reverend Michael Turnbull, 66, revealed his decision during the lunch interval of the Headingley test on Saturday.

Tony Blair said: "He has worked to make the church an active, living, caring organisation and not just a building where people go to worship.

"He will be missed, but we wish him a long and healthy retirement and look forward to seeing him at the county cricket ground many more times in the future."

Bishop Michael succeeded the Right Reverend David Jenkins in 1994 after spending six years as Bishop of Rochester.

He told Christopher Martin Jenkins on Radio 4: "I have long had a mind to do it on Test Match Special."

Earlier, he had told The Northern Echo, sister paper of The Advertiser: "A bishop has to go through quite a lot of protocol when he wants to retire.

"When I informed 10 Downing Street that the announcement would be on Test Match Special, they just said 'Pardon'?"

Durham County Council chairman Charles Magee said: "Bishop Michael brought great warmth, wisdom and dignity to his ministry."

Canon Eric Stephenson, chaplain to the Queen, said: "People have always been able to talk to him and he is genuinely interested in what everyone has to say."

Bishop Michael, who will be 67 in December, began his ministry as a deacon in 1960 in Middleton, Manchester. He was ordained Bishop in 1988 and will have served as Bishop of Durham for almost nine years when he steps down in April 2003.

Bishop Michael said he had a busy schedule until he retires: "We in the Diocese have much work to do together, especially this autumn when I am looking forward to visiting every deanery and building on our understanding of the church and its mission."

Bishop Michael and his wife, Brenda, said they would be sad to leave so many friends in the North-East and were full of admiration for the many gifted and committed people with whom they have served, both in the church and the community at large.

They will move back to the South to be near his three children and seven grandchildren, and also to Normandy, which the family loves.

Bishop Michael will continue preaching and teaching in his retirement, as well as indulging in his favourite pastimes of walking and cricket. He will remain an enthusiastic supporter of Sunderland AFC.

Bishop Michael, the Church of England's fourth most senior bishop, said North-East people had been "a very easy lot to love".