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The Bishop of Ely

Dr Anthony Russell

Dr Anthony Russell
Dr Anthony Russell

The Rt Revd Dr Anthony Russell was installed as the sixty-eighth Bishop of Ely in the year 2000. He is the senior bishop in the diocese of Ely, which comprises Cambridgeshire and a small part of north west Norfolk.

Together with the Senior Staff of the Diocese he leads the Church's mission and the teaching of the Christian faith, through preaching and writing, in synods and councils, and in the media. They represent the Church to the secular world.

The Bishop ordains men and women for the ministry of deacon and priest and confirms new Christians, of all ages. The diocesan clergy are licensed under his authority and are answerable to him.

Bishop Anthony was educated at Uppingham School, at St Chad's College, Durham, and afterwards at Trinity College, Oxford, where he gained a DPhil. He studied for the ministry at Cuddesdon Theological College. He served as a curate in the Diocese of Norwich and then as a priest in the Diocese of Coventry, at Atherstone on Stour, near Stratford upon Avon.

He was Chaplain (1973–82), and later Director (1983–88), of the Arthur Rank Centre, at Stoneleigh, the national rural resources unit for churches serving the rural community.  He was Canon Theologian in the Diocese of Coventry, and a Chaplain to HM the Queen, before being appointed Area Bishop of Dorchester, in the Diocese of Oxford, in 1988.

President of the Royal Agricultural Society for 2004/5, Bishop Anthony has always taken a keen interest in rural affairs and the farming community and is well known as a speaker and commentator. His farming roots run deep. He comes from a farming family and was driving a tractor on the day he went to theological college.

He is currently President of Cambridgeshire ACRE (Action with Communities in Rural England) – the Rural Community Council for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

Dr. Russell is the Church of England's spokesman on farming and countryside matters and maintains a particular interest in the socio-economic aspects of rural and farming communities. As Bishop of Ely, he is involved in many aspects of the University of Cambridge and supports a scientific approach to modern farming.

Bishop Anthony writes regularly for the Church Times. His many publications include:

  • The Clerical Profession (SPCK, 1980)
  • The Country Parish (SPCK, 1986)
  • The Country Parson (SPCK, 1993)