Career
Bates 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.
From 1983 he was a Suffragan Bishop, a post he held for 16 years.
He retired to Carnforth and is now an Honorary Assistant Bishop within the Carlisle Diocese. Towards the end of his Episcopate he stated:
The Church has got to realise its missionary responsibilities.
