Liverpool’s India-born bishop

Rt Rev Dr John Perymbalath has been appointed as the new Bishop of Liverpool.

In a statement, Downing Street announced Her late Majesty the Queen approved the nomination of Bishop John following the retirement of Rt Rev Paul Bayes in February 2022.

He will become the city’s ninth bishop, moving from the Diocese of Chelmsford where he had served as Bishop of Bradwell since 2018.

Bishop John said he was “delighted and humbled” to have received the call.

Bishop John is expected to be installed in Liverpool Cathedral in a special service early next year.

He is married and has one adult daughter.

Bishop John comes from the Christian community in Kerala, South India, and was ordained into the Church of North India in 1994. He moved to the UK in 2001, serving in roles in the Dioceses of Rochester and Chelmsford.

He gained his Ph.D. in 2007 from North-West University in South Africa, with a thesis entitled “Confident and Imaginative: Scripture & hermeneutic in the Johannine Passion narrative and today”.

He trained at an Evangelical theological college in Kolkata, adding this experience to Orthodox and Anglo-Catholic influences and a Benedictine approach to spirituality. “I don’t think I grew out of any of these,” he said on Tuesday, “and I still feel comfortable in all those traditions.” He suggested that it was important for a bishop being able to identify with multiple traditions: “I think all people should be able to feel like the bishop belongs to them.

The recently retired Bishop of Liverpool, Bishop Paul Bayes, described Dr Perumbalath on Twitter as “pastorally warm, committed to the just reign of God, close to Christ, Spirit-filled, full of faith, unafraid”.

(Picture Courtesy: Church of England)