ON EASTER Day, when his flock will be gathered in their churches and cathedrals for the most important festival in the Christian calendar, the Bishop of London will be on a luxury cruise liner docking in the Libyan port of Benghazi.

The Right Rev Richard Chartres and his wife, Caroline, will have sailed on the liner Minerva II from Cadiz, Spain, along the North African coast on a voyage to visit some of the wonders of the Ancient World.

But the cruise, which runs from April 8 to 22 and costs from £3,570 per person, will not cost the bishop a penny.

As a distinguished historian and polished public speaker, the bishop will be delivering a lecture or two in return for his free passage. His wife — whose book on life married to a clergyman will be published this year — intends to earn her keep by working in the Minerva II’s library, which is stocked with 4,000 titles.

The bishop is by no means alone in Church of England circles in taking advantage of the luxury lectures policy of the cruise company Swan Hellenic. The liner is part of the P&O group and word of its largesse towards learned Anglicans seems to have spread among the clergy.

Swan Hellenic has 18 prominent Church of England clergymen on its books as guest speakers, including eight current or former bishops. They include the Right Rev Graham James, the Bishop of Norwich; the Right Rev Mark Santer, the former Bishop of Birmingham; and the Right Rev Tim Stevens, the Bishop of Leicester. This week the Right Rev Richard Harries, the Bishop of Oxford, will depart to San Francisco where he will board the liner as a guest speaker for a cruise entitled Essence of the Americas.

The bishops and canons rub shoulders on the list of lecturers with the likes of Jon Snow, the broadcaster, Sir Roy Strong, the writer and historian, and a host of lesser-known but well-respected academics, former diplomats and authors.

The Bishop of London has been a Swan Hellenic lecturer for 20 years, but his decision to be absent during Easter has attracted some criticism. An official for Amicus, the trade union that represents clergy and church workers, said that his absence during Holy Week demonstrated poor leadership.

The Diocese of London said that the cruise came at the end of an extended period of study leave for the bishop and had been agreed to by his senior colleagues. A diocesan official said that it was the bishop’s first sabbatical in 33 years.

Before departing, the bishop will record a service at St Ethelburga’s, Bishopsgate — destroyed in an IRA bomb in 1995 and has been restored as a peace centre — that will be broadcast by the BBC on Good Friday.

The Right Rev Peter Broadbent, the Bishop of Willesden, said senior clergy in the diocese were happy for the bishop to enjoy his break. He added: “He has prepared for this trip as part of a period of study leave that will refresh him for the enrichment of the diocese.”

WHAT HE MISSES . . .

April 9 Palm Sunday

April 16 Easter Day

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