Press release from 10 Downing Street.
The King has approved the nomination of The Right Reverend Ruth Elizabeth Worsley, Suffragan Bishop of Taunton in the Diocese of Bath and Wells, to the See of Wigan, to be known as the Interim Bishop of Liverpool.
The Liverpool diocesan website has New Interim Bishop of Liverpool Announced.
From: Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street
Published 28 February 2025The King has approved the nomination of The Right Reverend Ruth Elizabeth Worsley, Suffragan Bishop of Taunton in the Diocese of Bath and Wells, to the See of Wigan, to be known as the Interim Bishop of Liverpool.
Background
Ruth was educated at the University of Manchester and prepared for ordination at St John’s College, Nottingham. Ordained in 1996 to a title in Hyson Green, in the Diocese of Southwell she had various other parish responsibilities in that diocese as well as service as Area Dean of Nottingham North.
Ruth served as Dean of Women’s Ministry and as an Honorary Chaplain to Her late Majesty The Queen. She was subsequently Parish Development Officer in the Diocese of Southwark and then Archdeacon of Wiltshire in the Diocese of Salisbury. She was appointed Bishop of Taunton in 2015.
The Liverpool report includes the detail that: The Archbishop of York has petitioned His Majesty the King to revive the See of Wigan, allowing Bishop Ruth to transition into this role within the Diocese of Liverpool while laying down her role as Bishop of Taunton. Both the Dioceses’ Commission and the Liverpool Bishop’s Council have approved this revival for the duration of her interim ministry.Bishop Ruth will be appointed as suffragan Bishop of Wigan and given delegated powers from the Archbishop of York to act as interim Bishop of Liverpool. Using the see of Wigan for this purpose will enable… Read more »
The Liverpool report also includes this news:
The Bishop of Warrington, the Rt Revd Beverley Mason, [said,] “I regret there remain uncertainties about my situation, but we hope to announce my pathway in the next few weeks.”
As someone who has lived and worshipped in Taunton for nearly 30 years, I can thoroughly commend Bishop Ruth as an excellent bishop. She has great experience having effectively covered Bath & Wells through the illness of Bishop Peter Hancock and subsequent vacancy following his retirement, and also her time seconded to Coventry following simultaneous vacancies for the bishoprics of Coventry and Warwick. I have always found her a pastoral and understanding person who is approachable and works well with a wide range of people, both within and beyond the Church. She will be greatly missed in Bath & Wells,… Read more »
The Liverpool website also has this https://liverpoolcofe.org/a-statement-on-behalf-of-senior-leadership-at-the-diocese-of-liverpool/ A statement on behalf of Senior Leadership at the Diocese of Liverpool Dear sisters and brothers in Christ Today Downing Street has announced that Bishop Ruth Worsley, currently Bishop of Taunton will act as interim Bishop of Liverpool. You can read the press notice on our website and in the Bulletin, Ruth will be taking up her post with us as soon as feasible and we will have an installation service in the next few weeks. We will be letting you know when we have firmed up the date. Bishop Ruth has been… Read more »
Why hasn’t the Bishop of Warrington been made the acting Bishop of Liverpool? She covered the last vacancy.
As she says in the diocesan statement (and see my other comment) “I regret there remain uncertainties about my situation, but we hope to announce my pathway in the next few weeks.”
I saw that, but I don’t think it explains why she didn’t get the job. Unless she has another one in the pipeline.
Janet it’s very perplexing and bureaucratic. The see of Wigan is being revived, the bishop of Taunton has only just returned to Bath and Wells after more than a year in Coventry, if she doesn’t become bishop of Liverpool, does she return once more to Taunton? That could be 2026 or even 2027 if the CNC process is deadlocked, as in Carlisle and Ely.
I understand Bishop Ruth is leaving Taunton, so we will be appointing a new suffragan in Bath & Wells.
She will cease to be Bishop of Taunton when she is translated to Wigan shortly. So there will be no slot in the Somerset diocese for her to return to. Quite likely (if the Dioceses Commission approves, which it always does) there will be a new occupant of the see of Taunton by then as well. She will be 63 this year, so pushing 65 perhaps by the time a new Liverpool is in post.
I cannot find any record of a previous Bishop of Wigan. It seems as if it was a suffragan see brought into formal existence but never occupied. I think the same is true of Oswestry.
When was there last a Bishop of Wigan? I can’t see any record of the see.
Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffragan_Bishops_Act_1534#Other_suffragan_titles notes that the see of Wigan was created by Order in Council on 6 April 1889 but has never been filled, and that the “Dioceses Commission has advised that these may be revived and filled just as any other dormant See might”.
The referenced 2015 report from the Dioceses Commission can still be read at https://web.archive.org/web/20160531030913/https://www.churchofengland.org/media/2469449/annual_report_2015.pdf and https://web.archive.org/web/20160530173348/https://www.churchofengland.org/media/2252539/dormant%20sees%20-23-6-15.docx
Thank you, that’s interesting to know.
There is, it seems to me, another aspect to all this. Church life in Wigan has taken something of a knock in recent years as a result of the ‘Transforming Wigan’ plan. I wonder what local Anglicans make of all this: after all, they were obliged to rationalise and re-organise themselves, but now see that the resources exist for an additional bishop.
The first comment on this thread makes it clear that this see is only being revived for this particular situation and there is no expectation it will continue. It is a means to provide the diocese with a very experienced bishop to be interim bishop as soon as possible rather having to wait for the CNC processes to work through – and also gives the Bishop of Warrington space to discern her future.
.
I don’t know Bishop Ruth from a bar of soap, but she clearly has carved out something of a bridging ministry which has been valued and recognized. Too often preferment is about who gets the next job and becomes like runners and riders in the Grand National. However, interim and acting roles and this sort of liminal and healing work is to be acknowledged and affirmed and this looks like a really creative appointment in a sea/see of uncertainty.
If and when Bishop Ruth succeeds Bishop John at Liverpool, albeit only as interim acting bishop, will this become the second occasion when a diocese of the C of E has had female bishops, but no male bishop, in post? (The first being between 6 November 2023 and 9 November 2023 when Bishop Ruth was Acting Bishop of Coventry on her own before being joined by a male Assistant Bishop.) Or have I missed an occasion?