Robert Hardwick

He served as the 12th Bishop of the Diocese of Qu'Appelle, which covers much of the southern part of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan.

Originally from England, he and his family moved to Canada in 2001, where he became parish priest at St Stephen the Martyr, Swift Current, Saskatchewan.

[1][2] He first felt a calling towards the church when serving as part of the security detail for the papal visit of Pope John Paul II to England in 1982.

He went home and described his experiences to his wife, and they began to attend a local Church of England parish.

[2][4] He first served as assistant curate at St John the Baptist in Beeston, Nottinghamshire (1993–97), and then as vicar of Scawby, Redbourne and Hibaldstow, in Lincolnshire (1997-2001).

[2] Hardwick and his wife had been considering a move to Canada, and he eventually sent an application to the Anglican church in Kimberley, British Columbia.

[3] In 2008, he was appointed executive archdeacon by Bishop Greg Kerr-Wilson and the family moved to Regina, Saskatchewan, the see of the Diocese of Qu'Appelle.

The service was also attended by four of Hardwick's predecessors as Bishop of Qu'Appelle (Michael Peers, Eric Bays, Duncan Wallace, and Greg Kerr-Wilson), the first time in the history of the Anglican Church of Canada that so many former bishops had attended a consecration of their successor in the see.

[7] Because of the size of the event, and the fact that the diocesan cathedral, St Paul's, was undergoing major construction, the service of consecration was held in a local Roman Catholic church, Holy Trinity.