THE new Bishop of Durham is set to meet an angel at one of his first public appearances in his diocese.

Bishop Justin Welby will hold a Prayer of the People meeting under the Angel of the North in Gateshead on November 21 – weather permitting.

If the weather does not co-operate the bishop will lead his flock indoors – to St Ninian’s Church in Harlow Green, Gateshead, between 10am and 2pm.

The gathering – five days before he is formally installed as bishop at Durham Cathedral – is one of five he is holding in the region.

On November 22, he will be at Sunderland Minster, followed by St Nicholas Church, Durham, on November 23, Escomb at Bishop Auckland the day after and St Cuthbert’s, Darlington on November 25.

The event at Darlington will include the formal Crossing of the Tees event at Croft, the traditional welcoming of the bishop into the diocese over the River Tees.

He will be installed at Durham Cathedral in a service on November 26. The bishop was formally consecrated at a ceremony at York Minster last Friday.

Yesterday in front of a small invited congregation at St Nicholas Church, Durham, the bishop announced his intention to get out and about to meet his flock.

He is encouraging them to use 21st Century technology to contact him.

The bishop said: “I am inviting people across the diocese to say what they long for in our communities and the people who live in them.

“A key part of the campaign is the use of social networking to allow people to submit their prayers.

“We all know that times are hard in this area. Many people are really struggling with jobs being lost and the future can feel very bleak.

“But the spirit of the people of the North East has always prevailed in hard times.

“When things are tough, sensible people turn to God. We often make prayer sound really difficult, but at its heart, prayer is sometimes telling God our hopes and dreams, and then letting him shape us and our future.

“I hope many people will take this chance to stop for perhaps just a few minutes, say to God what’s on their mind about their own future and the future of all of us here, and then share that prayer. People can use Twitter or Facebook or turn up at one of the places I’ll be in November, including the Angel of the North.

“We see social networking as important because it’s a whole new way of attracting people to the word of God.”

People can send their prayers to the Bishop by “liking” the Bishop’s Facebook page www.facebook.com/Prayerofthepeople or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/prayerof @prayerof and using the hash tag #prayerofthepeople.

Bishop Justin succeeded Tom Wright as Bishop of Durham, one of the most senior positions in the Church of England.

He left to take up a post as research professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at St Andrew’s University in Scotland.