HE'S back - and he's raring to go!

Bishop Kenneth recovering at home

Bishop Kenneth will make his first public appearance for six months at a special, inter-denominational service at Portsmouth Cathedral next Sunday (May 13).

And he can’t wait to say thank you to all those who have been praying for him.
He is still recovering from a bone marrow transplant he was given in December to combat leukaemia. Doctors are pleased with his progress and he is regaining strength each day.

He hopes to lead a united service organised by Christians Together in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight (CTHI), which brings together Anglicans, Roman Catholics, Methodists, Baptists and those of other denominations across the two counties. They will join forces at 3pm on May 13 to celebrate the work that Christians do together to promote social justice.

Hundreds of worshippers will take part in the service, which will be based on a special liturgy written by John Bell of the Iona Community. It takes inspiration from Christian Aid’s work in El Salvador and the example of Archbishop Oscar Romero. There will be music from a united choir and Portsmouth’s Salvation Army band, African drumming and a sermon from Matthew Reed from Christian Aid.

And the bishop hopes he can start visiting parishes across his diocese (south-east Hampshire and the Isle of Wight) next month to say a personal thank-you to worshippers who have consistently remembered him in their prayers.

“Ten years ago I would have died,” he said. “It is a miracle that I’m here at all. The illness has affected the way I think and feel about Christianity and the way I do my job. I don’t want to become a leukaemia bore, but inevitably it will colour everything I do for the rest of my life.

“I’ve been living on the fringes of Christianity for much of the past couple of years, so I feel as though I’ve been looking at the Church from outside. I may therefore need convincing that some things that others think are important are actually as important as all that!

“The other thing about being ill is that you realise how important people are. I haven’t missed the big, set-piece occasions so much as the ordinary visits to parishes – meeting the people who would be there whether the bishop was there or not. When I’ve celebrated the Eucharist in my chapel and prayed for the churches in the diocese, sometimes I’ve ached to be there with them.”

Kenneth was given the bone marrow transplant from an anonymous Italian donor whose DNA matched his. He and his donor may therefore have shared a common ancestor. In February, as expected, he went back into hospital for 10 days to fight a virus that his donor had already had. Medical technology identified that the virus was on its way and he was treated before any symptoms appeared. Had the treatment not been given, he may have gone down with pneumonia.

The bishop will continue to be monitored until the end of 2008. If he remains clear of leukaemia until then, the chances of the disease returning are very small.

“I hope everyone will understand if I don’t linger after a service, and that I’m not allowed to shake hands with people,” said Kenneth. “It will take a bit of time to build up my immune system completely – I’ve done so well so far. And I won’t be able to use public transport or visit air-conditioned places until this December.”

Next month, Kenneth’s book on the Transfiguration will appear. ‘Rooted In Detachment: Living the Transfiguration’ was written as he recovered from his first bout of leukaemia last year, and is published by Darton Longman and Todd. He hopes to launch it at diocesan synod (the Church’s local decision-making forum) on June 23.

Incredibly, Kenneth also managed to write a second, 150-page book between January 8 and February 9 while recovering from his bone marrow transplant. ‘Watching and Waiting: the Riddle of Advent’ is a devotional book, and will be published by Canterbury Press in October.

“I had the idea for the book on our wedding anniversary, December 18,” he said. “It’s based on eight Old Testament texts that look forward to the coming of Christ. We tend to walk through Advent, but it’s an important time and the way those Scripture texts are used in worship show how they contain everything about the Christian faith.”