The Bishop of Bradford, who retires this summer, spoke about his forthcoming retirement as he gave his Easter message.

The Right Rev David James leaves the Diocese this July.

The Bishop spoke of the need to make sacrifices and for some things to come to an end if change and new life was going to happen.

“There are times in our life when we think we can’t go on like this and things have got to change,” he said.

“There’s going to be an election when about half the population will say things have got to change; the other half will say ‘no, things are okay’.

“The trouble is that when things do have to change then there’s a cost.

“Things don’t change easily. We have to give up, perhaps one political party, perhaps a way of life, perhaps a certain attitude and there’s a barrier, a threshold you’ve got to go through.

“There’s a sense in which before we can change, renew a situation, or before we can do something in our own minds – there’s got to be a dying.

“I sometimes wonder with Bradford itself. When I spoke at my very first sermon at Bradford Cathedral I spoke on regeneration – that’s a long, posh word for new birth. I said there has to be regeneration, new birth in Bradford. Things have to change and I wonder have they changed in Bradford?

“Does there need to be a whole new way of looking at life, a way of looking at our city together if Bradford is going to be born again?

“There are also times for ourselves in our own lives and in our own personal relationships where there has to be a dying to live, a giving up and letting go so we can change.

“Sometimes it’s really scary, sometimes a change forced upon us, sometimes a change where we have to choose one or the other, we daren’t die but the message of Easter, the message of Jesus, is that God is with us in this change.”

The Bishop’s own change when he retires will come after nearly eight years in office. He had previously served as Bishop of Pontefract and has also been a vicar in Sheffield and Southampton.

Before ordination he taught university-level chemistry and has also been a university chaplain and a college governor.