• January 28, 2022

Keralite priest in UK ordained as youngest Bishop in Church of England: Archbishop of Canterbury congratulates

By A Staff Reporter

LONDON Jan 27: A Keralite priest in the UK has been ordained as a bishop in the Church of England at a ceremony held at St Paul’s Cathedral in London on Tuesday.

Saju, aged 43, is now the youngest bishop in the Church of England but not the first of Indian-origin as the current Bishop of Bradwell, Bishop John Perumbalath, was also born in Kerala.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby congratulated Saju on Twitter afterwards. In English he tweeted: “A wonderful, exciting, beautiful day for the @churchofengland — a diverse, global church brought together in the joy of Jesus Christ.”

Saju Muthalaly was born in Kerala and grew up in a leprosy hospital in Bangalore, where his mother was a nurse. His family were part of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, and he “committed his life to Christ” as a teenager.

He studied at the Southern Asia Bible College in Bangalore, graduating with a Bachelor of Theology (BTh) degree in 2001. Having moved to the United Kingdom in 2001, he trained for ordination at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, an evangelical Anglican theological college, and graduated from the University of Oxford with a further BTh in 2008.

Saju Muthalaly was ordained in the Church of England as a deacon in 2008 and as a priest in 2009. From 2008 to 2011, he served his curacy at St Thomas’ Church, Lancaster, a charismatic evangelical church in the Diocese of Blackburn. He then moved to the Diocese of Carlisle, where he was an associate vicar at St Thomas’ Church, Kendal and St Catherine’s Church, Crook from 2011 to 2015. In 2015, he joined St Mark’s Church, Gillingham and St Mary’s Island in the Diocese of Rochester as priest in charge. He was made vicar of St Mark’s Gillingham in 2019.

On 12 November 2021, it was announced that Saju Muthalaly had been appointed the next Bishop of Loughborough, the suffragan bishop of the Diocese of Leicester, in succession to Guli Francis-Dehqani. He was ordained as a bishop in the Church of England at a ceremony held at St Paul’s Cathedral in London on Tuesday, which makes him the youngest bishop in the Church of England.

Saju is married to Katy who has a background in Youth & Community Work and has more recently dedicated her time to raising their four children: Jonah (8), Abraham (9), Zipp (10) and Zeph (12).

His parents live in Kollam. His brother Siji Malayil, a lawyer in the Karnataka high court.

As Suffragan Bishop, Saju will share oversight of the diocese with the Bishop of Leicester, the Rt Revd Martyn Snow. Snow said: “Leicester can be rightly proud of our track record of gifting to the wider church bishops who represent different ethnic groups and will help the church to reflect the fullness of life in Christ.”

Saju, who now carries a bishop’s staff made of Indian rosewood, will be officially installed as Bishop of Loughborough at a service at Brockington Church of England Academy in Enderby, Leicestershire, on February 5. The event will be live-streamed on YouTube.

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