The new Rector of Leeds City Parish, the Revd Canon Paul Maybury, has been officially welcomed to the city at an Inauguration Service held at Leeds Minster (on Sunday, December 4).
The sermon was given and the service led by the recently installed Bishop of Kirkstall, the Rt Revd Arun Arora.
Words of welcome were offered to the Rector (pictured with the team at Leeds Minster) by representatives from other faith groups, the Lord-Lieutenant of West Yorkshire, the High Sheriff and Cllr Helen Hayden representing the Lord Mayor of Leeds.
As part of the service a commendation was also offered by Clive Barrett on behalf of Bradford Cathedral, where Paul had previously served as the Acting Dean and Canon Precentor.
In his sermon Bishop Arun invited Paul, "to embrace the call to be a holy troubler.”
“Paul this evening as we gather to welcome you, to induct you into your new role, to inaugurate you into your new ministry in this magnificent place, let me invite you to embrace the call to be a holy troubler.
“As the Rector of Leeds City Parish, you are responsible not only for the building of Leeds Minster but for the communities it serves.
“You’ll know as a priest in the Church of England you are not to be simply a chaplain to the congregations who worship but rather to share in the cure of souls for all who live in this parish, which contains some of the most economically deprived households in the city of Leeds.
“Your call to this place and this time of economic challenge and the cost of living crisis may require you to cause trouble on behalf of those who are overwhelmed by such challenges. To be with them, to speak out alongside them and to advocate on their behalf. To look out for all the people of this parish in practical and spiritual need.
“Paul my invitation to you is that in your ministry you may point people to the God who made them, knows them and loves them. That you might have the courage to speak truth unto power and seek God’s will over popular recognition, and that you might be a priest for all of the people within Leeds City Parish.”
Revd Paul has a long history with our region, joining Bradford Cathedral in 2016 after working as Bishop’s Mission Priest in the Diocese of Cyprus.
Before this Revd Paul worked in the former Diocese of Wakefield, as a parish priest and as Rural Dean of Dewsbury.