Rupert Hoare

Who is Rupert Hoare?

Rupert William Noel Hoare is a former Dean of Liverpool and Anglican Bishop of Dudley.

Hoare was born in Sussex and attended the Dragon School in Oxford before attending Rugby School. Upon completing his secondary education, he went to Trinity College, Oxford where he studied theology.

He graduated in 1961 with a First Class Honours and spend the following year in Berlin on a scholarship from Coventry Cathedral. In 1963, he returned to Cambridge, this time attending Westcott House Theological College. In 1964, he achieved another First Class Honours in Part III of the Cambridge Tripos and completed his PhD thesis on the relationship between theology and psychiatry in 1973.

He became a deacon in 1964, and became a curate at St Mary's Oldham in the Diocese of Manchester in 1965. In 1968, he took up a post at Queen's College, Birmingham where he lectured for five years. He also became an Honorary Canon Theologian at Coventry Cathedral, holding this post for six years. In 1972, he returned to Manchester as rector of the Parish of the Resurrection.

In 1978, he returned to Birmingham as a canon residentiary of Birmingham Cathedral, before being appointed Principal of Westcott House in 1981. He was Area Bishop of Dudley in the Diocese of Worcester between 1993 and 2000 before moving to become the fifth Dean of Liverpool in 1999. He retired as Dean of Liverpool in 2007.