The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have both published the following announcement.
New Dean of the Arches and Auditor of the Chancery Court of York appointed
02/06/2020
The Archbishops of Canterbury and York are delighted to announce that Morag Ellis QC has been appointed as Dean of the Arches and Auditor on the retirement of Charles George QC. Morag will take up her duties on the 8th June 2020.
Morag was called to the Bar by Gray’s Inn in 1984 and appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2006. She began her career at 8, New Square (now Cornerstone Barristers) before moving to Francis Taylor Building in 2014. Morag was appointed Commissary General of the Diocese of Canterbury in 2011, and Deputy Chancellor of the Diocese of Southwark in 2013. In 2015 Morag was appointed as a Panel Chair to Clergy Discipline Tribunals and became a member of the Legal Advisory Commission of the General Synod in 2016. She was appointed as QC Church Commissioner in 2019. She is also a Reader licensed in the Diocese of Chelmsford.
The Archbishops would like to express their enormous thanks to Charles for his remarkable service over the last 11 years and wish him well as he steps down from the role.
The Dean of the Arches (Province of Canterbury) and Auditor (Province of York) is the most senior ecclesiastical judge in England and as Master of the Faculties is responsible for the regulation of the notarial profession in England and Wales and some overseas jurisdictions. The appointment is made jointly by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York with the approval of Her Majesty the Queen.
Like the archbishops, I’m delighted at this appointment (and I declare an interest as a former member of Cornerstone Barristers, from where I retired in 2016 and from where Morag practised until 2014.) One of Charles George’s last synodical interventions was to propose (at the revision committee) an amendment to the draft Diocesan Boards of Education Measure to ensure that the constitution of DBEs was more in line with modern concepts of corporate governance and accountability. That was rejected by the committee and, when the proposal was partially renewed (on a proposal by Carl Hughes) at the revision stage… Read more »
A truly excellent appointment. Morag is a person of deep integrity, and great intelligence and ability.