Dr Wright, a lifelong Newcastle United fan who was born in Morpeth, Northumberland, has been Bishop of Durham since 2003.

Bishop of Durham N. T. Wright said April 27 that he will retire from his diocesan post on August 31.

Wright, who will be 62 this autumn, will take up a new appointment as Research Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at St. Mary’s College, the divinity school of the University of St Andrews in Scotland, according to an announcement on the Durham diocese’s website.

“This has been the hardest decision of my life,” Wright, regarded as a leading New Testament scholar, said in the diocesan announcement. “It has been an indescribable privilege to be bishop of the ancient Diocese of Durham, to work with a superb team of colleagues, to take part in the work of God’s kingdom here in the north-east, and to represent the region and its churches in the House of Lords and in General Synod. I have loved the people, the place, the heritage and the work.”

However, Wright said that his “continuing vocation to be a writer, teacher and broadcaster, for the benefit (I hope) of the wider world and church, has been increasingly difficult to combine with the complex demands and duties of a diocesan bishop.”

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said April 27 that Wright “has given generously of his extraordinary gifts in the life of his diocese and the Church of England at large, and he will be greatly missed by his fellow bishops.”