Gordon Bates was the eighth Bishop of Whitby^[1]. He was born on 16 March 1934 and received his ecclesiastical education at Kelham Theological College, being ordained Deacon in 1958 and Priest 1959. After a Curacy at Eltham he served as a Youth Chaplain in, firstly, the Gloucester and then the Liverpool Dioceses. From 1965 he began a long association with Liverpool Cathedral, becoming in time a Canon Residentiary, Precentor and finally Director of Ordinands ^[2]. From 1983 he was a Suffragan Bishop^[3], a post he held for 16 years. He retired to Carnforth and is now an Honorary Assistant Bishop within the Carlisle Diocese^[4]. Towards the end of his Episcopate he stated