Updated Friday – The press release has been updated so that the first paragraph now reads:
The King has approved the nomination of The Reverend Canon Andrew Zihni, Canon Precentor of Southwark Cathedral, to be appointed Dean of Gloucester, in succession to The Right Reverend Stephen Lake following his appointment as Bishop of Salisbury.
Press release from the Prime Minister’s Office
Appointment of the Dean of Gloucester: 19 January 2023
The King has approved the nomination of The Reverend Canon Andrew Zihni for election as Dean of Gloucester.
From: Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street
Published 19 January 2023
The King has approved the nomination of The Reverend Canon Andrew Zihni, Canon Precentor of Southwark Cathedral for election as Dean of Gloucester, in succession to The Right Reverend Stephen Lake following his appointment as Bishop of Salisbury.
Andrew was educated at Merton College, Oxford, and trained for ministry at St Stephen’s House, Oxford. He served his title in the Parishes of Goldthorpe and Hickleton in the Diocese of Sheffield and was ordained priest in 2003.
In 2006 Andrew was appointed Minor Canon and School Chaplain, St George’s Chapel Windsor. In 2014 he was appointed Assistant Director of Vocations in the Diocese of Southwark and Honorary Minor Canon of Southwark Cathedral and additionally served as Priest Vicar, Westminster Abbey from 2018.
Andrew took up his current role as Canon Precentor of Southwark Cathedral and Chapter Safeguarding Lead in January 2021.
Is it now customary to promote clergy who have been in their current posts for so short a time? I recognize that a precedent was set by the current ABofC
I can think of a precedent from much longer ago. The below is pasted from the Wikipedia entry of Robert Stopford. 1 June 1955 consecrated bishop[4]1955–1956 Bishop suffragan of Fulham (jurisdiction: northern Europe)[3][5]June 1956[3]-1961 Bishop of Peterborough In more recent times, Kay Goldsworthy was installed as Bishop of Gippsland on 21 March 2015 and as Archbishop of Perth on 10 February 2018. It was my good fortune to be at the Gippsland installation. I spoke to Kay only very briefly at that, but when I saw her on a parish visit to Traralgon a few months later she remembered that… Read more »
What I seem to remember about Bishop Stopford, that after he retired from Bishop of London, where he was after Peterborough within 8 months of retiring from London, he was brought out of Retirement by Michael Ramsey than Archbishop of Canterbury and asked to be Vicar General in Jerusalem (virtually acting Archbishop in Jerusalem) on the Retirement of Bishop George Appleton as Archbishop in Jerusalem and charged with the task of restructuring the Anglican Church in the Middle East and drawing Up a new Constitution to prepare the Middle Eastern Province for indigenisation, as the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and… Read more »
Thank you Jonathan. You have probably seen the post on TA from last year: Clifford Jones Reply to Simon Kershaw 11 months ago Does the Guinness Book of Records have an entry for the most elderly bishop at the time of his enthronement? Robert Stopford, former Bishop of London, was enthroned as Bishop of Bermuda in 1976 at age 75. It was his fifth episcopal post. Stopford was followed at Bermuda by a member of the Community of the Resurrection, Anselm Genders. At that time Bermuda had an RC bishop, title Bishop of Hamilton in Bermuda, who was a member… Read more »
This looks to be a good appointment. We also need a new Precentor but
Andrew sounds well able to keep an eye on that side of things as he settles in. As a member of the regular congregation at Gloucester Cathedral I look forward to meeting him.
I sometimes wonder if there is a vicar graduate scheme like management schemes in other areas of life so some people get on them as they are seen as a potential bishop or dean and your experience is tailored so a bit of parish work a bit of chaplaincy and a bit of cathedral work.
Congratulations to Andrew. But why does the press release refer to “nomination … for election”? Diocesan bishops are certainly elected by the College of Canons, but I wasn’t aware that deans were elected by anybody.
No such mention in the cathedral announcement here
https://www.gloucester.anglican.org/2023/the-revd-canon-andrew-zihni-announced-as-next-dean-of-gloucester/
10 Downing St asleep at the wheel?
i dont know the procedure but assume it could the cathedral chapter have to meet to formally approve it. from memory as part of the installation process the dean of Westminster Abbey does something in the chapter house
Is it part of the Cathedrals’ Measure?
No. This point has arisen before and was discussed on TA, but I cannot find the case in question. However, the same format was used by No 10 for the announcement of the appointment of the Dean of St Paul’s (also the most recent one I believe: TA 30th March 2022), and that time TA readers did not demur! This C of E document sets out the appointment procedure in detail, but does not deal with the finer points of the announcement:
https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2017-11/Appointment%20Process%20for%20Deans.pdf
It was the appointment of the Dean of York. https://www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk/dean-of-york/
Downing Street was told then that there was no election except for bishops!
Deans of Old Foundation cathedrals used to be formally elected by the prebendaries. But this never applied to New Foundations like Gloucester, and anyway it was abolished for the Old Foundations in 1836.
In this case it’s presumably Downing Street using the wrong template.
The press release has been updated to remove the reference to election; it now reads “to be appointed”.