Farewell to Bishop Christopher after 10 years serving our Diocese
The Bishop of Portsmouth, the Rt Rev Christopher Foster, will retire after a farewell service at Portsmouth Cathedral on April 24.
The ninth Bishop of Portsmouth after more than 10 years in the role. He will retire at the same time as his wife, the Rev Sally Davenport, who is team rector at Holy Trinity and St Columba, Fareham.
Because of Covid restrictions, there are strict limits on the number who can be physically present in the cathedral for the farewell service. But as many civic, military, church and community representatives as can be safely fitted into the cathedral have been invited. Hundreds of others will watch the live-streamed service, which starts at 4pm, at home.
They will see the symbolic moment when Bishop Christopher lays his crozier – the shepherd’s crook that signifies his role as leader of his flock – onto the altar at the east end of the cathedral, before processing through the building and leaving by the west doors. From that moment, he is no longer Bishop of Portsmouth.
This symbolic moment will be accompanied by a specially-commissioned piece of music, written by contemporary US composer Nico Muhly. His setting of Hymnus in Natale Martyrum will receive its global premiere at the service. Nico used the notes C and F – the bishop’s initials – to be played throughout the second half of his piece, as part of his tribute.
Nico Mulhy said: “The bishop and I know one another through his daughter Miriam, who is a dear friend. I always enjoy writing music for specific occasions, and the setting-down of a crozier is pretty much as specific as you’re going to get. It’s an honour to have been asked to write something for this occasion and I hope that the piece is something that is resonant with everybody present there, no matter what the reason."
Composer Nico Muhly
Biography of the Rt Rev Christopher Foster
Christopher Foster grew up in the industrial West Midlands and in Surrey before studying economics at Durham and Manchester Universities and briefly working as an economics lecturer.
He was ordained in 1980, served as a curate in Wolverhampton, and as chaplain of Wadham College, Oxford. He became vicar of Christ Church, Southgate, in London, in 1986 and then worked on the staff of St Albans Cathedral from 1994.
He was consecrated as Bishop of Hertford in 2001, one of two suffragan (assistant) bishops in the Diocese of St Albans. He married Sally, who is also ordained, in 2006 following the death of his first wife, Julia, in 2001. He has two grown-up children, Richard and Miriam, who will be with him on Saturday.
He became the ninth Bishop of Portsmouth in September 2010, succeeding the Rt Rev Dr Kenneth Stevenson. Shortly afterwards, the Rev Sally Davenport was appointed as team rector of Holy Trinity and St Columba churches, both of which are near their home in Fareham.
He is Anglican co-chair of the conversations in England and Wales between the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church, and led the ecumenical Churches’ Funerals Group. Previously he served as convenor/chair of Churches Together in England for four years, also bringing together Christians of different denominations, and has held other chairmanships nationally. He has also served as a governor at the University of Portsmouth and is patron to a number of local charities.
He spoke nationally for the bishops on economic policy, benefits and welfare, and defence. In the House of Lords, where he was introduced as a Lord Spiritual in 2014, he spoke particularly on the economy and about welfare and benefit issues.
From March to July 2020 he live-streamed Sunday worship from his home in Fareham, alongside Sally, while parishes across the diocese were unable to hold services in church because of the Covid pandemic.
During one such service, he was surprised by his close colleague the Bishop of Salisbury, the Rt Rev Nicholas Holtam, who unexpectedly joined the live-stream to help Bishop Christopher to celebrate 40 years since being ordained.