Rt Rev Bishop Roger Gurling CJ Readers Certificate (Church of England)
(Rector, St Christopher, Dartford, Kent)
48 Colney Road, Dartford, Kent, DA1 1TX
Tel:01322 270843
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I was born at Kings College Hospital, London SE5 in July 1932 into a Christian family. My parents and grandparents were active in the Anglican church of the Lady Margaret, Chatham St at the Elephant and Castle in south east London for most of their lives. I grew up as an active participant in theAnglican church myself, serving as a chorister, then as a server until I qualified as a Lay Reader and was licensed in July 1967. I served mainly in the Southwark Diocese in the parishes of St John, Waterloo Road, St Mark Battersea Rise, and finally in 1986 St Mary Magdalene, Woolwich until 1994, when due to my wife developing Rheumatoid Arthritis and subsequently Diabetes, I transferred to St Alban Dartford where I stayed until March 2000.

My first marriage lasted twenty-two years. In 1986 I remarried and remain so until my wife Ruth died in October 2007. I had three children from my first marriage, two daughters, Janet born 1960 & Ruth born 1967, and one son, Christopher born 1964; he was epileptic and sadly died as the result of a seizure in his bath while preparing to go out with friends in March 2000.

I first felt the call to ministry in the mid 1950s, but the C of E, taking the blinkered view that only university graduates had anything to offer in that field, rejected my approach. I was ordained Deacon and Priest in 2001 in Bournemouth by Bishop Richard Palmer for the Open Episcopal Church, in which I subsequently served as Church Treasurer, subsequently being appointed Canon in recognition of services in that regard. With my long history in traditional Anglicanism, I felt called to join the Anglican Independent Communion in 2006. My local ministry includes being Chaplain to the Independent Order of Oddfellows and the Mothers Union.

I was appointed bishop and consecrated on the 21st September 2008 and am responsible for the Diocese of the Southern Counties.