Downing Street announcement: Diocese of Liverpool: the Right Reverend Paul Bayes
The Queen has approved the nomination of the Right Reverend Paul Bayes, BA, DipTh, Suffragan Bishop of Hertford, for election as Bishop of Liverpool in succession to the Right Reverend James Stuart Jones, Hon DLitt, BA, PGCE, whose resignation took effect on 31 August 2013.
The Right Reverend Paul Bayes
The Right Reverend Paul Bayes (aged 60) studied for the ordained ministry at Queen’s College Birmingham. He served his curacy at St Paul’s Whitley Bay in Newcastle diocese from 1979 to 1982. From 1982 to 1987 he was a University Chaplain in the West London Chaplaincy in the diocese of London. From 1987 to 1990 he served as a Team Vicar at High Wycombe in the diocese of Oxford and then as Team Rector there from 1990 to 1995. From 1995 to 2004 he was Team Rector of Totton in Winchester diocese, and from 2000 to 2004 he also served as Area Dean of Lyndhurst. From 2004 to 2010 he was a member of the staff of the Archbishops’ Council, working as National Mission and Evangelism Adviser. In 2007 he was appointed an Honorary Canon of Worcester Cathedral. Since 2010 he has been Suffragan Bishop of Hertford in the diocese of St Albans.
Paul Bayes is married to Kate, who is a head of sixth-form and a drama teacher. They have 3 grown-up children.
His particular concern is to find good ways of communicating the Christian faith within England as it actually is. His recreations include walking, reading, laughter and conversation.
Diocesan announcement: The next Bishop of Liverpool is to be the Right Revd Paul Bayes
Downing Street has announced that the next Bishop of Liverpool will be the Rt Revd Paul Bayes. Bishop Paul has been Bishop of Hertford since 2010 and will succeed the Rt Revd James Jones, becoming the 8th Bishop of Liverpool…
Brilliant appointment!
I expect Charles is right, and I have no reason to doubt that this is a brilliant appointment. I notice that it seems to illustrate the point made by Martyn Percy in an opinion piece here a couple of months ago, that C of E bishops seem to be drawn primarily from the ranks of specialists in mission and evangelism. Percy notes that this is the first time since the Reformation that there is not a single diocesan bishop with university experience as a lecturer in Theology. It is interesting that among the six bishops recently announced (four suffragans, Bp… Read more »
Had hoped we could get him for Bath and Wells, but Liverpool will be an ideal fit, excellent appointment.
It used to be said “If you want to get ahead get a hat.” Now it would seem that within the Established Church “If you want to get a hat grow a beard.” I note that both the bishops designate of Liverpool and Europe have what I believe are known as “goatee beards”. The soon to be consecrated Bishop of Lewes also sports a similar amount of fuzz. I further seem to recall that the newish Bishop of Manchester also favours the wild and woolly look when it comes to facial hair. Who, however, can match the luxuriant growth of… Read more »
Father David, it has been noted before!!
http://shipoffools.com/features/2012/beard_almighty.html
“the luxuriant growth of our last much loved and greatly lamented Archbishop Rowan?” Father David
Don’t. I’m still getting flashbacks from seeing his eyebrows in High Definition during the Royal wedding coverage.
Laurence, you are not the only one to be fascinated by Archbishop Rowan’s eyebrows. One of the Residentiary Canons told me that when the Dalai Lama was in St. Paul’s to receive the Templeton Prize he tweaked and twisted Rowan’s eyebrows as he presented him with his white silk prayer scarf. I also heard from the same source that the bearded Bishop of London was reported to have said of the Tibetan visitor:- ” For a divine incarnation he doesn’t half scratch his armpits a lot!”
FWIW my former archdeacon said of +Maidstone’s beard: “It speaks of the kingdom of heaven.”
This is all well and good, but please can we have some clean-shaven women soon?
Fr David: I would call both these chaps’ face furniture Van Dykes, since (I think…) a goatee exclude the moustache… (I could be wrong. I could be a pedant.)
Anne: We can have some women soon, but they shall have to wear beards too. I’m sure artificial ones will be allowed.
I note, however, that the FIVE suffragans announced this week are all bald-faced.
One of our recent Easter gospel passages concerned the Walk to Emmaus which highlighted the strange phenomenon whereby the two companions of the Risen Lord failed initially to recognise Him. The great artist Caravaggio tried to explain the reason why in his painting The Supper at Emmaus. How? Well, he depicts Jesus as clean shaven! Not only has the Lord experienced a mighty resurrection but He’s also had a shave! So is it any wonder that they failed to recognise Him?
Dan, traditionally you are correct in that a goatee beard referred to chin fluff alone, as seen on the face of Abraham Lincoln or indeed the last Bishop of Europe. But since the 1990s hair on the chin and on the top lip has been referred to as either a goatee or a Vandyke. The debate continues. Am I correct in thinking that clergyman should not sport a moustache alone but either a full set or be clean shaven? Is there something in Canon Law which forbids this? Although the last Bishop of Bradwell wore a moustache alone without any… Read more »
Beards seem to be on the up and up. The bearded Conchita Wurst of Austria has just won the Eurovision Song Contest.
“So if you really, really want to get ahead in today’s Church of England – grow a beard.”
I sincerely hope the inverse will not be assumed – i.e. that all those who wear a beard “really, really want to get ahead”… 😉
“So if you really, really want to get ahead in today’s Church of England – grow a beard.”
Will there be a booming fake beard market for women?
” “So if you really, really want to get ahead in today’s Church of England – grow a beard.”
Will there be a booming fake beard market for women? “
I’m presumably not the only one imagining the next meeting of WATCH resembling the stoning scene in the Life of Brian?
Well done Graham for taking this thread from the appointment of the Bishop of Liverpool to the Life of Brian. Now, I am left wondering who the bearded Godly Matrons of WATCH will be hurling their stones at? In the film it was Matthias, son of Deuteronomy of Gath and John Cleese took the part of the Jewish High Priest. Presumably Justin Welby will be cast in that role in the film’s remake as he looked so pretty in imperial purple amid the sea of pure white on the steps of St. Paul. But be warned the glass ceiling won’t… Read more »
There is more to breaking the stained glass ceiling than who gets ordained, though that is a crucial part of it. The danger is that bishops and others will think that once women are bishops that’s it all sorted. It isn’t.
Incidentally, Janet Fife (one of those ordained in 1994 and who wrote in last week’s Church Times)and I lay claim to inventing the ‘stained glass ceiling’ label – we used it for a WATCH meeting in Manchester diocese all those years ago.
Charles says that “There is more to breaking the stained glass ceiling than who gets ordained” but then fails exactly to articulate what that “more” is? He then goes on to claim to be the co-progenitor of the actual phrase ” the stained glass ceiling”. In all my many visits to thousands of churches over the years I have yet to see a church containing a stained glass ceiling. In my experience the stained glass windows are usually set within the walls. Surely, as a church, after many, many years internally debating the contentious issue of women’s ordination, we need… Read more »
On the charitable assumption that Fr. David really does not know what I am on about… There are multiple layers of gender discrimination in the Church of England and ordaining women is not the only issue among them. We are very used now to the question of why so high a percentage of women clergy are NSM / MSE etc. When we see female incumbents of large suburban churches (for example)in ratio to female clerical numbers generally, we might be getting somewhere. And what about the diocese that sees itself as being very “pro-women” but has no women senior staff… Read more »