Press release from Number 10
Suffragan Bishop of Dunwich: Michael Robert Harrison
From: Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street
First published: 16 December 2015The Queen has approved the nomination of the Reverend Michael Robert Harrison to the Suffragan See of Dunwich in the diocese of St Edmundsbury.
The Queen has approved the nomination of the Reverend Michael Robert Harrison, MA, PhD, Director of Ministry and Mission, in the diocese of Leicester, to the Suffragan See of Dunwich in the diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich in succession to the Right Reverend Clive Young, BA, on his resignation on 31 May 2013.
Notes for editors
The Reverend Canon Mike Harrison (age 52) is at present Director of Mission and Ministry in the Leicester diocese and also Honorary Canon of Leicester Cathedral. His undergraduate studies were in mathematics and statistics at Selwyn College, Cambridge. Following on from this Mike worked as both a management consultant and a social worker in London. He trained for the ministry at Oxford. After ordination Mike served as Assistant Curate at St Anne and All Saints, South Lambeth for 4 years. During this time he studied for a PhD in doctrine at King’s College, London University. From 1994 to 1998 he was Chaplain at Bradford University and Bradford and Ilkley Community College, where he was also Diocesan World Development Advisor and completed an MA in international development studies at Bradford University. From 1998 he was Vicar of Holy Trinity, Eltham in the diocese of Southwark and from 2005 he was also Rural Dean of Eltham and Mottingham. He moved to Leicester diocese in 2006, and since then has been involved in growing the mission of local parishes as well as developing missional leadership, pioneer ministry and fresh expressions of church.
Mike writes:
“It has been a huge privilege to be involved in the development of mission and evangelism in the Leicester diocese over the last decade and to serve as Director of Mission and Ministry. I am delighted that this new role will enable me to continue to work in this area while taking on wider responsibilities as Bishop of Dunwich in the diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich.”
Mike is married to Rachel, an occupational therapist and they have 4 children, aged 13 to 21. For many years Mike has enjoyed running, completing a number of marathons, as well as keeping fit through swimming, cycling and the gym. He is a passionate supporter of Bolton Wanderers (having been born in Bolton) and (not unrelated) has an interest in live comedy.
St Edmundsbury and Ipswich diocesan website: The next Bishop of Dunwich announced
Leicester diocesan website: Mike Harrison appointed next Bishop of Dunwich
I think a lot of us will have been expecting a much more exciting appointment, but I’m sure this is a wise one nonetheless.
The announcements are surprisingly coy about where exactly in Oxford Canon Harrison did his training, but Crockfords reveals it to have been Cuddesdon. So a catholic-inclined bishop at last, but appointed (with due apologies to Dunwich and its denizens) to somewhere he is unlikely to do much harm to the Evangelical, HTB modelled, Church our Archbishops seem intent on creating. Like contributors to other threads, I am alarmed at the continuing slew of Evangelical appointments to other sees, and that none of the highly qualified, catholic-inclined ladies who are ready and waiting, has yet been preferred. This has now gone… Read more »
Malcolm it is deplorable.
I cannot understand the lack of wider comment, let alone public outcry.
I hope Parliament will intervene, through one of the routes available to it.
Has there really been a a disproportionate amount of evangelical bishops appointed? Of the last 5 Diocesan bishops announced (Election confirmed 2015 & Leicester) three trained at evangelical colleges, whilst two did not. Of the suffragan/other bishops (15 since start of 2015) 10 trained at broadly evangelical colleges. (Though college name isn’t necessarily accurate for finding out about theological convictions). Suffragans/area bishops are appointed by the Diocese without the CNC being involved so the wider CofE isn’t having a direct influence here. With regard to recent appointments some dioceses are looking to have clergy as bishops with experience of or… Read more »
“He is unlikely to do much harm to the Evangelical, HTB modelled, Church our Archbishops seem intent on creating.” I am not sure I can agree with Malcolm Dixon on his (self-imposed) gloom about recent episcopal appointments. Based on a timeline since it was lawful for women to be consecrated bishops, there have been four appointments to diocesan sees (Leicester, Newcastle, Gloucester, and Southwell & Nottingham) and ten to suffragan sees (Hertford, Edmonton, Taunton, Aston, Crediton, Kensington, Sherborne, Richmond, Hull and Stockport). These are not in order of appointment. I have left Maidstone and Islington out of the equation. Of… Read more »
@Anthony Archer – you really mustn’t come on here debunking the comfortable myths that are the plausibility structure for the habitues of TA. Why, you’ll be telling us next that the Bishop of Newcastle isn’t catholic and female, and reminding us that the CofE has never in the past gone through phases of appointments when all the bishops came from Westcott and Cuddesdon…
How heartening to see the new Dunwich keeps his name ‘Mike’, against the worrying trend of massively pretentious new bishops adopting lengthened versions of their established (short) given names. An excellent indication that this one is to be servant, not lord!
Whatever the tactics behind the choice of both diocesan and suffrgan bishops in the Church of England; there is still no expressed intention to include people of the intellectual and pastoral gifts of the current Dean of St. Albans!
Why is that? And is the bias going to change soon?
Where one trained isn’t a guarantee that a cleric is of the one mind with the college: the Bishop of Ebbsfleet, for example, trained at Wycliffe Hall.
Thank you Anthony for your detailed comments based on your considerable experience of the CNC process. I accept that labels can be unhelpful, but I think our church has usually managed to keep a reasonable balance across the spectrum of churchmanship, and I fear that balance is being disturbed. Statistics can always be interpreted in different ways but, yes, I do think that the figures as presented above by s_snowberry show a disproportionate leaning to the evangelical wing, perhaps for the reasons advanced in the same post. If that reasoning does explain what has been happening, then I would caution… Read more »
Well, evangelical or catholic he’s clearly ‘muscular’. There’s a nice variation on the usual ‘hill walking’ interests expressed in the press release – clearly Michael Harrison will hit the ground ‘running!’ Of course, he is also in the traditionalist mould of a ‘passionate football supporter.’
It’s a pity these new bishops can’t be rugby supporters, but I suppose that would be too elitist?
A point I was going to make Richard . I once interviewed for a Lambeth diploma a chap who had trained at Wycliffe Hall a few years previously. He arrived in black suit, Gleason formal and turned out to be a member of F in Faith.The interesting thing perhaps is that people tend to go ” up” rather than ” down”. Given our residential colleges are mostly aligned with a particular churchmanships it would be interesting for Min Div to do a study of the dynamics of churchmanships mobility.
There are lots of catholic diocesans in the Church of England at the moment: Lincoln, Ely, Norwich, St Edmundsbury & Ipswich, Chelmsford, Dover, Southwark, London, Chichester, Portsmouth, Worcester, Manchester, Salisbury, Exeter, Truro. it’s odd that it doesn’t feel much like it.
Note that, in this announcement, “Mike is married to Rachel, an occupational therapist and they have 4 children, aged 13 to 21.” In Tuesday’s announcement, by contrast, “The Right Reverend Martyn Snow is married to Dr Lynn Snow, a paediatrician and they have 3 children (aged 14, 12 and 10).”
Why does Lynn get treated like an adult woman in her own right, while Rachel does not? Does Number 10 accord full respect only to paediatricians, and not occupational therapists?
(I pass over the bizarre comma usage.)
Congratulations to Mike Harrison. I am moved to comment in support of Fr Ron. It would appear that Eltham is a mysterious place. Two former vicars are consecrated bishops, Christopher Lowson (Lincoln) and now Mike Harrison (Dunwich). Pity the man who served between them and in whose stewardship the parish prospered was not so favoured. Still that is St Albans gain or it’s Abbey at least
There have often been little groups of catholics at Wycliffe Hall who wanted to study in Oxford but didn’t want to come to St Stephen’s House. They were often involved with Pusey House. Jonathan Goodall, Nicholas Wheeler and the former head of the Oratory School Clive Dytor come to mind.
R: also notable is the overuse of titleage in Snow’s compared to Harrison’s.