WHILE Archbishop of York, Dr David Hope would have drawn a stipend of more than £51,000 if he had accepted his full entitlement.

In a gesture typical of his Anglican Catholic asceticism, however, each year he handed about £12,000 back to the Church Commissioners, who manage the Church’s £3.9 billion assets and the bishops’ payroll.

This meant that, as well as easing the Church’s well-documented financial difficulties, he remained on roughly the same stipend as in his previous post as Bishop of London.

But as parish priest his stipend will drop back to £18,000. This will probably have little effect on his life. As a celibate man who lives a life close to the monastic, his needs are few. It is likely that a large proportion of that, too, will find its way back into the coffers of the Church he loves.

He will exchange his palace just outside York for a vicarage at the bottom of Ilkley Moor in a village on the banks of the River Wharfe.

His sacerdotal duties as parish priest will be similar to those he performs as Archbishop.

He now rises at 5am to pray, say Mass with his chaplain in his chapel at Bishopthorpe at 7am, visit churches and church folk across the 14 dioceses of the Northern Province in the afternoon, and do a confirmation or two in the evening.

As a priest, he will continue to rise at 5am. This will be followed by a Mass at St Margaret’s, an Anglo-Catholic parish.

The days will be spent doing pastoral work, visiting, taking Communion to the sick and doing marriage preparation.

In a parish serving a community of 5,500 and with more than 120 regular worshippers, the weekends will be spent presiding over weddings, baptisms and funerals as well as his usual duties.

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