John Dennis (bishop)
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John Dennis | |
|---|---|
| Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich | |
| Church | Church of England |
| Diocese | Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich |
| In office | 1986–1996 |
| Predecessor | John Waine |
| Successor | Richard Lewis |
| Other posts | Honorary assistant bishop in Winchester (1996–2020) Bishop of Knaresborough 1979–1986 |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 1956 (deacon) 1957 (priest) |
| Consecration | 1979 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 19 June 1931 |
| Died | 13 April 2020 (aged 88) |
| Denomination | Anglican |
| Children | John Dennis Hugh Dennis |
| Alma mater | St Catharine's College, Cambridge |
John Dennis (19 June 1931 – 13 April 2020)[1] was an Anglican bishop, who served as Bishop of Knaresborough, and then for ten years as Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich. In retirement, he was an honorary assistant bishop in the Diocese of Winchester.[2]
Dennis was born to (Hubert) Ronald Dennis (1899–1990) and Evelyn, daughter of Leonard Joseph Neville-Polley, a science tutor and author who wrote a biography of the chemist and physicist John Dalton. His father, Ronald Dennis, was the son of a South Yorkshire coal hewer and served as a platoon commander on the Western Front in World War I.[3][4]
Dennis was evacuated during the war, residing with his paternal grandparents in the mining village of Wales, near Kiveton.
After the war, he was educated at Rutlish School, Merton (a state grammar school, where his father taught biology and physics), and St Catharine's College, Cambridge (BA 1954, MA 1959),[5] before studying for ordination at Cuddesdon College, Oxford.[6] At Cambridge, he rowed, which he said "[it was] my passion. I loved it, and I managed to prove myself quite tolerably good."[7]
Between school and university he spent a year of National Service serving with the Royal Air Force.
Ministry
Following curacies in Armley and Kettering,[8] he was appointed vicar of the Isle of Dogs in 1962, transferring to John Keble Church, Mill Hill, in 1971. He was appointed as a prebendary of St Paul's Cathedral, London, in 1977.
He became the Bishop of Knaresborough in 1979,[9] which was a suffragan see to the diocesan Bishop of Ripon; and for most of his time in that office he also served as Diocesan Director of Ordinands (DDO) for the Diocese of Ripon. In 1986, he was translated to become the diocesan Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich in Suffolk. He retired in 1996 and lived in Winchester from 1999.[10]
Dennis served as a Lords Spiritual in the House of Lords from 1992 till his retirement in 1996.[11]
