A CEREMONY at Ripon Cathedral completed the enthronement of a new bishop for a new super diocese in Yorkshire.

The Rt Reverend Nick Baines took part in three separate enthronements in the three cathedrals of Wakefield, Bradford and Ripon over several days, making him officially the new Bishop of Leeds for the Diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales.

The ceremonies began on Tuesday (July 15) at Wakefield cathedral, in a large ceremony in which civic leaders and local and regional dignitaries were led through the city centre of Wakefield by a brass band through the streets to the cathedral. There they waited for the new bishop to arrive; symbolically striking at the west door three times with his staff, waiting for permission to enter. The ceremony continued with trumpeters from West Yorkshire Police band and a ceremony in the city precinct where he blessed the city.

The enthronement then continued at Bradford Cathedral two days later, on Thursday 17 July. Bishop Nick Baines had laid down his staff of office as Bishop of Bradford on Easter Day, making it the first time in history a bishop has been enthroned in the same cathedral twice.

On Sunday Ripon saw the final enthronement where civic, community leaders and local dignitaries were joined by the Bishops of Kurunagula and Colombo, representing the diocese’s link with Sri Lanka, to witness Bishop Nick taking his oaths on the historic Ripon Bible, dated 1260.

The city’s hornblower will then sounded the Ripon Horn to mark the new bishop taking his seat, or ‘cathedra’.