Frank, who is 67 this year, spent four and a half years in the vicarage at Riding Mill while his wife Alison, who was installed at Bishop on Hull in June, was priest in charge at St James’s Church in the village.
Dubbed Mr and Mrs Bishop, the Whites are the first and currently the only example of two bishops married to each other in the Church of England.
And after serving in his current role since 2010, including a stint as Acting Bishop of Newcastle between November 2014 and December 2015, Frank has decided to step down from the role in September.
Bishop of Newcastle, the Rt Rev. Christine Hardman said: “Bishop Frank has given an enormous amount to this diocese during his time as Assistant Bishop of Newcastle: his godliness, deep sense of prayer, profound pastoral care, and commitment to mission and evangelism have been greatly valued by so many people.”
He was consecrated to serve as Suffragan Bishop of Brixworth in the diocese of Peterborough in 2002.
There he supported the diocese through the illness and death of the Bishop of Peterborough the Rt Rev. Ian Cundy in 2009.
In 2010 he accepted the invitation of the then Bishop of Newcastle, the Rt Rev. Martin Wharton, to become full-time Assistant Bishop of Newcastle.
Bishop Christine added: “I have been hugely grateful for Bishop Frank’s care of the diocese during the episcopal vacancy, the generosity of his welcome to me, and the many ways in which he has enabled the ministry of others to flourish, notably in his work as warden of readers and with self-supporting minsters.
“He will be greatly missed, but we wish him well in his retirement and as he re-joins Bishop Alison in her continuing work in the East Riding of Yorkshire.”
Frank’s successor will continue the role of sharing the work and ministry of the Bishop of Newcastle across the diocese of Newcastle, which is the most northerly diocese of the Church of England and framed by the Rivers Tyne and Tweed.
However, the next bishop to be appointed will bear the title Suffragan Bishop of Berwick; a title last borne by a bishop in the 16th century.
In today’s diocese the titles of the Bishops of Newcastle and Berwick are meant to symbolise the breadth of their shared ministry to rural, coastal and urban communities across Northumberland and Tyneside.
A farewell service for Bishop Frank will be held at St Nicholas’s Cathedral in Newcastle at 2.30pm on September 18.
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