Further tributes have been paid to a dedicated Staffordshire priest who died on Thursday following a stroke.

Today the Bishop of Ebbsfleet, the Rt Revd Andrew Burnham, paid his own tribute to the Revd Neil Jamieson-Harvey, describing him as “a dedicated priest in the Anglo-Catholic tradition.”

The bishop added: “Only 64 years old, Father Neil was actively planning to remain as parish priest of St Michael’s, Cross Heath, until his 70th birthday, regarding himself as a bit of a late starter. He was ordained in 1991 and continued to minister in the Bahamas, where he had worked for Cable and Wireless, until he went to Chichester Theological College to train. He came to Lichfield diocese in 1995, serving as curate at Meir Heath until he was appointed to Cross Heath in 1996. For the last two years he had also been priest-in-charge of St Paul’s, Newcastle, and was taken ill on his way to celebrate Mass there.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, three daughters and grandchildren.”

His Funeral Mass will be at St Michael’s, Cross Heath, at 10.30am on Friday 12th December, with the Bishop of Ebbsfleet as Principal Celebrant and the Bishop of Stafford, the Rt Revd Gordon Mursell, preaching the homily. In place of flowers, Father Neil’s widow has requested donations to be made in his memory to St Michael’s, Cross Heath.