It’s a bit of a homecoming for the new Dean of Bradford, the Revd Andy Bowerman, who is to return from Dubai to the cathedral where he was ordained and to the city he loves.
Andy began ministry as a curate in Bradford, he served as chaplain to Bradford City Football Club from 2004 to 2009 and once ran the Vicar’s Café Bistro in Saltaire, on the outskirts of Bradford.
He currently leads the Dubai-based Mission to Seafarers team, offering help and welfare to people in ports across three continents from Egypt to India and will return to Bradford to take up his new post this Spring.
He said:
“We feel deeply humbled and excited to be returning to Bradford after a decade or more away.
“When invited to consider the position, I talked about a print by Yorkshire artist Jane Fielder entitled ‘The Prospect of Bradford’.
“It hangs on our dining room wall here in Dubai, as it has in all our homes since we left the city, and it has always prompted me to think of, listen out for and pray for Bradford and her communities,’ he added.
The Rt Revd Nick Baines, Bishop of Leeds said Revd Andy’s gifts and experience would be put to great use:
“He brings wide and deep experience, not only of ministry in England, but also internationally.
“He will bring substantial gifts to the vital work at Bradford Cathedral, in conjunction with the Deans of our diocese’s other two cathedrals in Ripon and Wakefield.”
