THE most senior Anglican Church leader in the region, who is retiring on Thursday, highlighted his love and admiration for the kingdom at a special dinner staged in Bahrain.
The King Hamad Centre for Peaceful Coexistence hosted the event in honour of The Rt Rev’d Michael Lewis, the Bishop of Cyprus and the Gulf and formally the Archbishop of the Episcopal Province of Jerusalem and The Middle East.
“Of all the countries of which I have responsibility, of all the countries that I go to, by far the most welcoming and genuinely hospitable, and also understanding of Christians, is this Kingdom of Bahrain,” he told the gathering at the Awal Ballroom at the Gulf Hotel Bahrain Convention and Spa.
“I pay tribute not only to the global centre but also to His Majesty King Hamad himself.”
His diocese has covered Cyprus, Iraq and the whole of the Arabian Peninsula, including the Arab states of the Arabian Gulf.
Born in England on June 8, 1953, he was educated at King Edward VI School, Southampton and Merton College, Oxford, where he read Oriental Studies – Hebrew, Aramaic and Syriac – taking a BA in 1974 and MA in 1979.
He set out on a path to the priesthood at Cuddesdon Theological College, taking his second Oxford degree in the Final Honour School of Theology in 1977. He was ordained deacon in 1978 and priest in 1979.
A former chaplain of Thames Polytechnic, he went on to become Vicar of St Mary the Virgin, Welling, Team Rector of Worcester South East and later Rural Dean of Worcester and Canon of Worcester Cathedral.
Consecration to the episcopate followed in 1999 when he was appointed to the suffragan bishopric of Middleton. In 2007 he moved to Cyprus and the Gulf.
In 2011, he ordained the first ever female priest in the Middle East in Saint Christopher’s Cathedral and one of his last tasks in Bahrain was to lead the special ordination service to instal The Reverend Dr Richard Fermer as the new Dean and senior figure of the Manama parish.
Bishop Michael is a member and currently co-chair of the International Commission for Anglican-Orthodox Theological Dialogue. He is a former member of the Anglican Consultative Council and a former consultant to the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order.
For many years he has also been Bishop-Visitor of the Community of the Sisters of the Love of God, Convent of the Incarnation in Oxford.
A duel citizen of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Cyprus, he plans to retire with his wife, Julia, in Cyprus. The couple had three children, Paul, Eleanor and George who tragically died in 2017. They also have three grandsons, Jacob, Harry and Reuben, and one granddaughter, Isobel.
He plans to continue working in an unofficial capacity on church matters such as bringing together Christian denominations and working in harmony with other faiths.
At the end of last weekend’s dinner, the bishop was presented with a model dhow by Shaikh Abdulla bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, the King Hamad Centre for Peaceful Coexistence’s secretary general.
Bahrain is widely regarded as ‘the world’s leading centre for peaceful coexistence and interfaith dialogue’, with the centre hosting and facilitating conferences, dialogues and symposia providing a safe and peaceful platform for all voices to be heard in the spirit of mutual respect and love.
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