Better To Travel Hopefully

Better To Travel Hopefully

In August 2004, Dr Hope announced that he was to retire as the Archbishop of York, the second highest position in the Church of England and return to his roots as a Yorkshire parish priest. Better To Travel Hopefully, his account of his first year as an ‘ordinary’ parish priest, is told in diary form starting with his arrival and introduction to the parish workers , through to his induction and the various parish activities including the Mother and Toddlers group to the Quiz Night that marked the end of his first year. Told with Dr Hope’s customary humour he approaches his duties as a parish priest with enthusiasm and wonder and with constant gratitude that he is no longer “at Bishopsthorpe Palace preparing for the next General Synod”. A year of fundraising, coffee mornings, social activities, his fourth introduction to the House of Lords, karaoke, and Elvis Presley impersonation evenings come to an end with the news that his health will not allow him to continue. The five years he had hoped to be at St. Margaret’s Ilkley ended after just 18 months, a decision accepted stoically and philosophically but with much regret.

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