PETER Selby's parents met in London where they had come separately as refugees when Hitler came to power in their native Germany and Austria.

They married in 1939, and Peter was born in 1941. He grew up in north-west London. Although his father was of Jewish extraction, his parents became members of the Church of England.

"They were very keen to integrate into British society. There was always a view that I would get confirmed. So at a certain age, I went off to get confirmed, and that was when it happened to me," he said.

"Those were the days of very vigorous church-going. I still remember one Easter eve counting out 900 communion wafers. That's a very different part in the Church's life - now there would not be a fifth of that number.

"In my mid-teens I was absolutely determined I wanted to be a barrister. My friends said I loved the sound of my own voice, and I loved dressing up."

By the time he went to St John's College, Oxford, in 1964, to read classics, he had been accepted by the church for ordination training.

After his studies in Oxford, he did his theological training at Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, from 1964-1966 at the height of the civil rights struggle.

It was here he first became involved in work with prisons, doing a stint at San Quentin State Prison, California, an institution made famous in a Johnny Cash song.

"I had to do 12 weeks in an institution and chose to go to San Quentin. I often say to people, be careful, because it's not only prisoners who find it difficult to get out of prisons.

"It's amazing how it draws you. It's very addictive work."

Indeed, his interest in prisons continued, leading to his appointment as Bishop of Prisons in 2001.

After his return to Britain, he was ordained Deacon in St Paul's Cathedral in 1966. His first post was as curate at All Saints' Church, Queensbury, Edgware, where he met his wife Jan, who was a member of the choir.

"The bishop said I had had an extraordinary training and needed to be somewhere ordinary," Bishop Peter said.

From there, he went to the Diocese of Southwark, where he was involved in Christian adult education in his post as the vice-principal of the Southwark ordination course.

He held several posts around the country, and wrote a book titled Grace and Mortgage - The Language of Faith and the Debt of the World.

He was appointed Bishop of Worcester on January 31, 1997, and began his ministry on September 7 that year, perhaps not surprisingly, with a eucharist at HMP Long Lartin.

He spoke fondly of his time in the Faithful City. He said he derived great pleasure from the liturgical activities of being a bishop, especially carrying out confirmations.

"You are right face-to-face at close quarters with people who are making that step. All I have in the front of my mind are faces of people, faced with the decisions they have made," he said. "It's a wonderful privilege, I have often said I think everyone should do it for a fortnight."

Bishop Peter said he wanted his successor to continue the work he had started, but hoped they would be different in some ways.

"I have done this job in a rather intense way that has led to probably overwork and I think that's not good," he said.

"I don't think I could have done it any differently but I am saying I am a certain sort of person.

"The problem of overwork is so endemic in the church and I hope the next person will be better than I am in helping people to lay off a bit."

During his time in Worcester, he said he hoped he had won people's trust.

"I hope to have been a person who had strong opinions and was known to have them and who, at the same time, gained people's trust," he said.

"When you are invited to a job like this you get given a brochure of what the diocese said about itself.

"One thing that has never left me was we want a bishop who can give real support to people who operate on assumptions very different from his own.

"I think that's a deep challenge, I have tried to live that way. There are people who have views very different from mine and I felt I have supported and helped them.

"I would like to believe I have been trusted.

"If I have in any measure done that, then that would be the most important thing I have done, and would go to the heart of why I got ordained in the first place."

As for the future, he plans to continue his work in prisons, but first he wants a rest.

"Everyone tells me when you retire you really need time to do nothing, before you fill up your time with lots of things," he said. "One bishop told me it took six months to stop being tired."

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