BISHOP Michael Robert Kennedy has described his installation mass at Newcastle's Sacred Heart Cathedral as a "mountaintop" experience.
"I really had a sense that I'm where I'm meant to be," he said.
"These occasions in the Catholic church are very significant and important given the spiritual role a bishop has within the church.
"It was a very spiritual and joyful experience, and like all mountaintop experiences eventually we have to come down the mountain and get to work."
More than 550 people attended the mass to welcome him on Friday night.
The 54-year-old replaces the late Bishop Bill Wright, who died of lung cancer in November 2021.
Bishop Kennedy has served in Armidale since December 2011 and hopes to lead with the humanity and kindness of his predecessor.
"It's come across to me that he was very well loved and respected ... I'd like to be similar to him in those ways," he said.
"It [the mass] was a very warm experience, as in both the temperature and the wonderful welcome I was given to the Maitland-Newcastle diocese in the installation liturgy.
"I'm where I feel I belong and need to be, and I really feel this is where the Lord wants me."
Bishop Kennedy is the youngest of nine children from a Catholic family at Wagga Wagga and taught at Albury's Xavier College before he entered the seminary in 1992.
He was ordained in 1999 and said his goal is to lead the church to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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