Michael Ball

Michael Thomas Ball (born 14 February 1932) is a retired Anglican bishop and the co-founder of the Community of the Glorious Ascension. He was the Bishop of Truro from 1990 to 1997. Early life Ball was born on 14 February 1932. He was educated at Lancing College and Queens' College, Cambridge. Career Ball's first teaching post in 1955 was in general science at Pocklington School, East Yorkshire, where he was also house tutor at Lyndhurst, the junior boarding house. He left in 1960 to found the community mentioned below, following training at a separate community known as the Society of the Sacred Mission at Kelham, near Newark, Nottinghamshire. He was a teacher of biology and chemistry at Marling School in Stroud, Gloucestershire and was then head of the lower school until 1975. He was chaplain of Sussex University 1976 to 1980, suffragan Bishop of Jarrow from 1980 to 1990 and then the 13th Bishop of Truro. He was the first bishop there to ordain women. In 1960, Ball founded a monastic community at Stratford Park in Stroud, along with his identical twin brother Peter Ball. Peter Ball later became suffragan Bishop of Lewes (1977–1992) and then Bishop of Gloucester (1992–1993). Peter Ball was later convicted and imprisoned for sex offences.