BISHOP Anselm Genders, Honorary Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Wakefield and a former Bishop of Bermuda, has died at the age of 89.
His influence spread over the world as he served in various capacities in Barbados, Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia) and most notably as the Bishop of Bermuda for five years from 1977 to 1982.
Born Roger Genders, in Birmingham, he attended Brasenose Colle
ge, Oxford, and later served as a naval officer during the war.
Following the cessation of hostilities, and having completed his degree, he trained for the priesthood at the College of the Resurrection, Mirfield, and entered the Community of the Resurrection in 1952.
Having taken the name Anselm, he then served with the Community in Barbados for 10 years from 1955 to 1965, first as vice-principal of Codrington College, a theological college run by the Community, and then as the principal from 1957.
He went on to spend the next nine years in Rhodesia, becoming Archdeacon of the Eastern District in the process.
He was elevated to the episcopate in 1977, and became the Bishop of Bermuda, but after five years in this position he returned to Yorkshire and served first as Assistant Bishop and then, from 1993, as Honorary Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Wakefield.
He would tell friends that his time in Bermuda was not a happy one.
Those who knew him described Bishop Genders as a man who got along easily with people, and lit up conversations with his dry sense of humour.
Father Eric Simmons of the Community of the Resurrection, who was once a fellow student, said that when he first met him he appeared "rather austere and ascetic".
He added: "But as I got to know him better, I could see that he was quite fun, and had a nice sense of humour.
"He did not hit the headlines in any kind of way, but his friends who know him and value him, they will be very sad."
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