A SPECIAL service of thanksgiving will be held for the Bishop of Blackburn’s retirement this weekend.

The Rt Rev Nicholas Reade is to retire on Wednesday, October 31, but the special service will be held at Blackburn Cathedral on Saturday.

Representatives from the county will gather in the town, with clergy and representatives from all the parishes joined by the Lord Lieutenant, the High Sheriff of Lancashire, the chairman of the county council, MPs and mayors.

Bishops from the north of England, leaders of the other Christian denominations and of other faiths will be present as will representatives of schools, colleges and universities, the Mothers’ Union, Christian Aid and other charities.

Lessons will be read by a pupil from Balshaw CE Primary School, Leyland, and by the bishop’s wife, Christine Reade.

Bishop Nicholas will preach and celebrate the Holy Communion.

Then, symbolic of laying down his pastoral care of the diocese and its people, the bishop will kneel in silence and lay down the pastoral staff he was entrusted with at his enthronement. The Bishop, the eighth to fill the position, was consecrated in York Minster in 2004.

He said: “As I prepare to leave the diocese I have a real mix of emotions, but overwhelmingly a sense of thankfulness to God for calling me to be the Bishop.”