A WOMAN has been announced as the new Bishop of Warrington for the first time in history.
Venerable Beverley Mason, archdeacon of Richmond and Craven in the Diocese of Leeds, will take up the position.
She will minister alongside Bishop Paul of Liverpool as one of the chief pastors of the Liverpool Diocese.
On Tuesday, the new bishop visited Warrington Hospital where she met staff, patients and newborn babies.
She said: "Warrington will hold a big place in my heart, I'll be working with the Bishop of Liverpool to enable the churches to flourish.
"I have met the most fantastic people at the hospital it is such an inspirational place.
"What has really struck me about this hospital is how it is so people-focussed – they listen to what people want and have responded appropriately.
"Going onto the maternity ward, you feel that sense of sacred silence and sanctuary."
Beverley will be consecrated bishop of Warrington by the Archbishop of York at York Minster on Thursday, October 18.
She will formally start her ministry at a confirmation at St Elphin's Parish Church on Sunday, November 18.
Beverley has three brothers and comes from a military family. Her childhood was spent travelling between Army bases around the world.
The new bishop of Warrington
After leaving school, she worked in the financial sector but she came to faith while backpacking through Africa in 1994.
She returned to the UK at the end of her gap year and became a humanitarian aid worker for Christian charities, Aid to Russian Christians and then Humanity at Heart.
Beverley studied theology at Chichester University before formal training for ordination at Trinity College, Bristol.
She was ordained deacon in 2001 and served her title at St Paul’s, Rusthall in the Diocese of Rochester and St Margaret’s, Rainham.
In 2012, she was appointed vicar of All Saints, Bingley in the historic Diocese of Bradford and from January 2016 she has served as Archdeacon of Richmond of Craven in the new Diocese of Leeds where she also covered the eleven-months vacancy in Ripon.
Beverley has enjoyed extreme sports such as parachuting, paragliding, scuba-diving, white water rafting, abseiling and bungee jumping but today her interests are faith matters, art, dales walking, rock concerts and her over-indulged Westie – St James the Less.
She takes over from Rt Rev Richard Blackburn who retired earlier this year.
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