A Message from the Acting Bishop of Oxford:
“I’m delighted to be writing to you today with the news that we have a new Bishop of Oxford. He is the Rt Revd Dr Steven Croft, who is currently Bishop of Sheffield.
As both a diocesan bishop and formerly as a parish priest Bishop Steven has shown a passion for sharing the good news of Christ in both traditional and innovative ways.
--- Please do pray for him and for Ann over the next few months as they prepare to move to Oxford, and for the Diocese of Sheffield who will be very sad to say goodbye.”
Bishop Steven has extensive experience in training candidates for ordained ministry and for discipleship generally. He is currently the Chair of the Ministry division of the Church of England and those of us who have followed the Pilgrim Course will recognise him as one of the main authors of the series.
Archbishops Rowan and Sentamu recognised his passion for evangelism when they appointed him Archbishops’ Missioner and Team Leader for Fresh Expressions, a joint Church of England and Methodist initiative "to help Christians of any denomination think about ways of starting and growing fresh expressions of church in their area". In recognition of this work he was awarded the silver Cross of St Augustine by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Less well known is a further ecumenical credential and the fact that in 2012 Archbishop Rowan nominated Bishop Steven to be the Anglican fraternal delegate to the Synod of Bishops in Rome.
His latest major involvement nationally has been to lead the taskgroup on ‘developing discipleship’.
The younger members of the Diocese will be especially pleased to note that Bishop Steven is a consummate blogger and tweeter!
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