The Right Reverend Declan Lang, BA
Bishop of Clifton
Bishop Lang was born on the 15 April 1950 in Cowes on the Isle of Wight. Both his parents came from Ireland. His father was a doctor in Cowes having previously worked as a GP in Birmingham.
He went to Primary School at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Convent in Carisbrooke. He then went to Ryde School where he remained until he was eighteen.
He studied at Allen Hall, St Edmund's College, Ware to train for the priesthood in September 1968 and while he was there he also went to Royal Holloway College University of London, where he gained a BA in history.
He was ordained a Priest on the 7 of June 1975 by Bishop Derek Worlock at St John's Cathedral, Portsmouth. He was then appointed as an Assistant Priest at the Cathedral and Chaplain to St Edmund's Comprehensive School in Portsmouth.
Four years after ordination he was appointed Secretary to Bishop Emery and Chancellor. During this time he also worked on the Diocesan Youth Commission, which he later chaired. For a number of years he went as Chaplain with the Portsmouth Group to Lourdes at Easter.
In 1983 he was appointed to the Religious Education Council as Adult Religious Education Advisor, a position he held until 1990. While doing this work he was also Parish Priest of Our Lady, Queen of Apostles, Bishop's Waltham, for four years and then Parish Priest at Sacred Heart, Bournemouth.
As a result of his work in Adult Religious Education he produced together with John O'Shea, Vicky Cosstick and Damian Lundy the Parish Project. This was to help Parishes look at what they were currently doing, evaluate it and plan together future direction. This scheme has been taken up by a number of Parishes throughout the country.
In September 1990 he was appointed Moderator of the Curia and Administrator of the Cathedral. During this time he was also involved in organising a summer conference for the Diocese of Portsmouth and helping with conferences in Southwark and Shrewsbury.
In January 1996 he was appointed as one of the Vicars General in the Diocese moving from Portsmouth to Abingdon.
Whilst in there he chaired a Working Party jointly sponsored by the Bishop's Conference and the National Conference of Priests looking at clergy appraisal. The Working Party Report was accepted by the Bishop's Conference and since then he has spoken in a number of Dioceses about the reasons for and the benefits arising from clergy appraisal.
Bishop Lang was ordained as the 10th Bishop of Clifton on 28th March 2001 in Clifton Cathedral, by his predecessor Bishop Mervyn Alexander.
Bishop Lang chairs the committee for Theology Faith and Culture. He is the Co-Chair of the Anglican-Roman Catholic Committee (ARC) and also the Co-Chair for the Committee for Roman Catholic and United Reformed Church dialogue in England. Bishop Lang was elected to be the Moderator of the next Churches Together in England Forum to be held in 2009.
He is a member of the Mixed Commission of Bishops and Major Religious Superiors and is a trustee of the Pontifical Missionary Societies. Outside of the Bishops' Conference he is the President of the Catholic Association which organises the Pilgrimage to Lourdes on behalf of the Dioceses of Clifton, East Anglia, Northampton, Portsmouth, Southwark and Stoneyhurst College.
Within the diocese Bishop Lang instigated a review of Diocesan structures and as a result created the Diocesan Department for Evangelisation and Adult Education and a new Department for Schools and Colleges. During this time the Diocesan Liturgical Commission has also been reformed.
In 2002 Bishop Lang was appointed an Ecumenical Prebendary of Bristol Cathedral. He is the current Chairman of Somerset Churches Together and previous Chairman of Bristol Churches Together.