John Dennis (bishop)

Dennis was born to (Hubert) Ronald Dennis (1899–1990) and Evelyn, daughter of Leonard Joseph Neville-Polley, a science tutor and author who wrote a biography of the chemist and physicist John Dalton. His father, Ronald Dennis, was the son of a South Yorkshire coal hewer, and served as a platoon commander on the Western Front in World War I.[3][4]

John Dennis was evacuated during the war, residing with his paternal grandparents in the mining village of Wales, near Kiveton.

After the war, he was educated at Rutlish School, Merton (a state grammar school, where his father taught biology and physics), and St Catharine's College, Cambridge (BA 1954, MA 1959),[5] before studying for ordination at Cuddesdon College, Oxford.[6] At Cambridge he rowed, of which he said "[it was] my passion. I loved it and I managed to prove myself quite tolerably good."[7]

Between school and university he spent a year of National Service serving with the Royal Air Force.

Following curacies in Armley and Kettering,[8] he was appointed vicar of the Isle of Dogs in 1962, transferring to John Keble Church, Mill Hill, in 1971. He was appointed as a prebendary of St Paul's Cathedral, London, in 1977.

He became the Bishop of Knaresborough in 1979,[9] which was a suffragan see to the diocesan Bishop of Ripon; and for most of his time in that office he also served as Diocesan Director of Ordinands (DDO) for the Diocese of Ripon. In 1986 he was translated to become diocesan Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich in Suffolk. He retired in 1996 and lived in Winchester from 1999.[10]

In 1969 the Ely Commission of the Church of England considered the initiation of children within the Church, and in 1971 published its report "Christian Initiation: Birth and Growth in the Christian Society" (Church Information Office, 1971).[11] This led to widespread debate about whether children should start receiving Holy Communion after their Confirmation, as had always been traditional for Anglicans, or whether they should be admitted to Holy Communion at a much younger age. In 1976 the General Synod voted to retain the status quo, but debate continued in the dioceses. A working party was established to look at the question in greater depth, and John Dennis was selected as the Chairman of the working party. This resulted in the publication of "Children and Communion" (CIO 1983)[11] and "Communion before Confirmation?" (Ed. D Isaac) (CIO 1985),[12] both commonly referenced as "The Knaresborough Report", after John Dennis's episcopal see.[11][12]

In 1956, Dennis married Dorothy Mary,[13] daughter of Godfrey Parker Hinnels (who fought at the first Battle of Arras in World War I);[14][15][16]they had two sons. The elder son John Dennis works in the diplomatic service and was the British Ambassador to Angola from 2014 to 2018.[17] The younger son is the actor and comedian Hugh Dennis.[18]

John Dennis was a Freemason, and a member of Rutlish Lodge No 4416 (the Masonic Lodge associated with his school) under the United Grand Lodge of England.[19] He was initiated on 18 April 1975 at the Lodge's regular meeting place in the Tower Room at Great Tower Street, beside the Tower of London.[20] He was initiated by his father, who was a Past Master of the Lodge. He was raised to the third degree in Sutton, Surrey, two years later, as the lodge had by then permanently relocated.[21]

Dennis died on 13 April 2020, six weeks after his wife.[22]