As well as the Bishop of Liverpool, another diocesan bishop has announced his retirement this month. This is Michael Langrish, the Bishop of Exeter, whose announcement came on 6 January.
Exeter and Liverpool therefore join the queue of dioceses (behind Blackburn, Manchester, Durham, and Bath & Wells) awaiting consideration by the Crown Nominations Commission. In addition, if and when reorganisation of the three West Yorkshire dioceses is finally agreed, the new diocese will also have to join the queue. There is only one unallocated slot in the CNC’s programme for 2013, so at least one out of Exeter and Liverpool will have to wait twelve months or more for their new bishop to be chosen, and then probably several more months before he actually takes up his post.
I maintain a list of vacant diocesan sees.
Suffragan bishops also announce their retirements, most recently Christopher Morgan, the Bishop of Colchester, and I keep a list here.
Plenty of scope and time scale for appointing the first women bishops for the C of E.
The days of festina lente are over.
I see that a bishop is so crucial to the life of a diocese that one can manage quite happily without one for over a year! But how will they cope without a ‘focus for unity’?
We could expect another suffragan retirement i.e. +Edmonton.
He turns 65 this year and has been thinking about it
Indeed – Laurence how will they cope without a “focus for unity”. Perhaps the Lord Jesus Christ may well step in to fill the gap acting as such a focus – if that were to happen – expect great things.
Laurence: The same is true of vicars! Many parishes thrive during an interregnum.
Fr David, the Lord Jesus Christ would never be appointed to any position in the Church of England. Just think of the mayhem that would ensue if he started all that breaking down barriers and welcoming the untouchables stuff; and as for confronting the self importance of the religious leaders of the day – well!
A conservative evangelical must stand a chance in one of these! It’s only just and fair!
“Archbishop Patrick Kelly was paying tribute to his Anglican counterpart, James Jones, who has announced he is to retire in the summer. This was no bland paragraph of well-wishing. He wrote: ‘James was for me a Father in God, priest through, with and in Our Lord, and a bearer of the consolation who is the Holy Spirit’. Bishop James had been one of his first visitors in hospital after he suffered a slight stroke in December, and Archbishop Kelly said that through talking and praying with him he felt a ‘serenity, clarity and deep peace and even joy’ about the… Read more »
Perhaps, if the Church would consider ‘retiring’ the Episcopi Vagantes (Flying Bishops), there might be more room for the Women Bishops who deserve some encouragement in the Church of England.