Tomorrow afternoon’s ceremony at Bradford Cathedral, to be witnessed by up to 700 specially-invited guests, is in reality a formality.

The Right Reverend Nick Baines was officially drafted in as Bishop of Bradford at York Minister on April 1.

Professor Stephen Hawking might find the making of a bishop on All Fool’s Day appropriately ironic.

The celebrated Cambridge scientist does not believe in God or an afterlife. As he said earlier this week: “…that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”

Bishop Nick said: “I’m not scared of the dark; I don’t believe in fairy stories; and I’m not scared of Stephen Hawking either.

“Christianity is about the muck and bullets of the real world, of real people in real communities as opposed to fairy stories. Christianity is not an academic proposition, it’s a life lived in and through God.”

Professor Hawking’s view might find an affirmative response among the academic spires and better-off leafy suburbs of Oxbridge and London; but Bradford, which also has leafy suburbs, is a city embracing a wide range of religious faith and good works, looking after the souls of the well-heeled and tending to the wants of the destitute and hopeless.

The Bishop said: “The complexity of a place like Bradford means that religious experience is very diverse.

“We have to take great care with the language we use with one another. For me starting in Bradford, I have got to start learning the language.

“The first rule of communication is, ‘it’s not what you say but what people hear’. If I am going to say something strong to Christians about being confident in their faith, that shouldn’t be interpreted as having a go at Muslims, atheists or anyone else.

“I want people to judge Christianity by the best examples of living, not the worst; and I want Christians to judge other religions by the best examples, not the worst.”

The former GCHQ Russian linguist who studied French and German at Bradford University from 1976 to 1980, arrives back in the city which, ten years ago this July, experienced the worst rioting on the UK mainland in more than 20 years.

What, if anything, should the church do to acknowledge this event?

“The tenth anniversary gives an opportunity for communities in Bradford to ask what lessons have been learned and identify what still needs to be done to facilitate the building-up of a good society as opposed to David Cameron’s big society.

“I wish the terminology could be changed to good society,” the Bishop said.

This is also a time when the future of the Bradford Diocese and the status of the cathedral are in doubt.

Proposals by the Church of England’s Dioceses Commission include making Bradford part of another West Yorkshire diocese and downgrading the cathedral. In short, the Bishop could be out of a job by 2013, a fact he was aware of when he accepted the post last year.

“My view is we have to distinguish between status and reality. The church is often accused of not changing to be better shaped to serve the world it is in.

“The proposals were aimed at forcing the debate about how we ought to be shaped to do what we say we’re here for.

“Bradford could do well out of this by having a diocesan bishop and an area bishop, in effect two bishops batting on its behalf.

“I would not be squeamish about making way for somebody else. It’s not about me and my career: it’s about the future of the church.”