Bishop of Rochester steps down early

http://timescolumns.typepad.com/gledhill/2009/03/bishop-of-rochester-steps-down-early-.html

[Times Online] 30 Mar 2009--Bishop Michael of Rochester has announced that he is to step down as Bishop of Rochester. The inevitable question now is, will his plan 'to work in education and mission overseas' see him emerge as a new 'bishop' of an emerging Global South? His outspoken views on Muslims are thought to have cost him Canterbury, but it is in this area that he wants now to focus his attention. He is an Islamic scholar and has good relations with Christians in Islamic areas in Pakistan and the Middle East, and it is to this mission field and churches in the developing world that he wishes to devote his remaining years in service. In February last year he had to be given police protection after he and his family received death threats. He had claimed that parts of Britain had become no-go areas for non-Muslims.

His fearless conservative evangelicalism has won him the hearts of the Anglican churches in Asia and Africa that were behind Gafcon. No vacuum exists at present with Bob Duncan firmly in pole position, but if asked to play a leading role, would he demur? 'That is a hypothetical question and we should not speculate,' said a source.