The Very Rev Colin Slee, Dean of Southwark, has received an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours, and has also been made a Fellow of King's College, London.

The Dean who came to Southwark in 1994 and has recently welcomed both Dr Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu at Southwark Cathedral, was given the OBE for services to the community. He is a trustee of Crisis, the renowned charity working for homeless people. He is also associated with a fostering and adoption agency, Parents and Children, and in supporting clergy families in difficulty, through the Sons of the Clergy Corporation.

He commented:
"I am very grateful for this honour which has been bestowed on me. In receiving it I see it as a recognition of the dedication and skill of the many people who staff the areas of work I am involved in. All of it, at the Cathedral and in charities serving the community, is a team effort."

On the Fellowship of King's College, the Dean commented:
"As a student and as a member of staff I have twice had the delight of working in King's College full time. As Dean of Southwark I have had the extraordinary bonus of working with King's as neighbours who are also engaged in the electrifying regeneration of this side of the river. It is a very special honour indeed to be elected to this highest accolade the College can bestow. It is humbling to find myself placed with people whom I have always revered as my tutors and heroes."

The Bishop of Southwark, the Rt Rev Tom Butler, added this comment:
"I am delighted that the Dean of Southwark has been honoured in this way. It is a mark of his many achievements and the commitment and energy he gives to the projects and causes with which he is involved."

Ends.

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