John Hayden (bishop)

John Donald Hayden (born 1940) is a British retired Anglican bishop. He served in Tanzania as Assistant Bishop of Mount Kilimanjaro and is now an honorary assistant bishop in the Diocese of Chester.

Hayden received a Bachelor of Divinity (BD) degree from the University of London in 1962 and left ministerial training at Tyndale Hall, Bristol in 1963.[1] He was then ordained a deacon at Michaelmas (26 September) 1965[2] and a priest the next Michaelmas (25 September 1966), both times by Gerald Ellison, Bishop of Chester, at Chester Cathedral.[3] He served his titles (curacies) at Macclesfield (until 1968) and then Holy Spirit Cathedral, Dodoma (until 1969). He then became Vicar of Moshi for seven years, 1970–1977; and Home Secretary for the United Society for Christian Literature, 1977–1983.[1]

Hayden spent eleven years as Team Vicar of St Mary at Stoke with Stoke Park, Suffolk (1983–1994) before a ten-year incumbency of St Mary's, Bury St Edmunds (as Priest-in-Charge until 1999 then Vicar until 2004). He was consecrated a bishop in 2003, to serve in Tanzania as Assistant Bishop of Mount Kilimanjaro (2004–2009):[1] as assistant bishop in the Anglican Church of Tanzania Diocese of Mount Kilimanjaro, his task was to prepare the southern portion of that diocese to become a separate diocese; the new Diocese of Kiteto[4] was duly erected in 2009.[5] Hayden retired back to Cheshire in 2008, where he has been licensed as an honorary assistant bishop of the Diocese of Chester.[1]

Hayden first went to the Middle East in 1964 and has continued to lead pilgrimages there since. He has written 7 pilgrim guides covering this area. Those in print in 2017 are the Holy Land, Greece and Christ in Glory covering the 7 churches of Revelation in W Turkey.